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UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 



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FATHER EELLS 

OR 

THE RESULTS OF FIFTY-FIVE YEARS OF 
MISSIONARY LABORS 

IN WASHINGTON AND OREGON 



A BIOGRAPHY OF 

REV. GUSHING EELLS, D.D. 



BY MYRON EELLS 

I) 

With an Introduction by Rev. L. H. Hallock^ D.D. 






477f^ 



--7 



/ 



BOSTON AND CHICAGO 
CongrEsational ^unliags. School anti Publisfjing Sonctg 






Copyright, 1894, 
By Congregational Sunday'-School and Tublishing Society, 



9L tribute of affection 

TO GUSHING EELLS AND MYRA F. EELLS 



PREFACE. 



The writer was once at a church meetiug where some things 
were said, and perhaps justly, against a minister who had preached 
for the church. His son, who was present, defended his father. 
There were those at the meeting who by no means agreed with 
the father but who honored the son for what he said. We, the 
sons of Gushing and Myra Eells, would at least honor our parents. 
True, they were not what many call great. "Neither were they 
perfect. None knew this better than themselves. We believe, 
however, that they have done a great, good work for Oregon 
and AVashiugton, and we desire to record this and perpetuate the 
memory of what they have done. From what was said at the 
funeral services of Dr. Eells, from the number of memorial 
services held since his death in large cities in eastern and western 
Washington, from the contents of letters of condolence received 
from distinguished Christian men and women from Massachusetts 
to Washington, from the number and character of those who have 
expressed a wish that this biography be written, we believe that 
there are others who have thought very highly of them for their 
work's sake. 

Favors in preparing this work have been received from many 
friends, more especially from L. H. Hallock, d.d.. Rev. J. 
Edwards, Wallace Nutting, D.D., and Rev. F. P. Noble, of Chicago, 
the last of whom has rendered great assistance by his criticisms of 
the whole work. 

M. E. 
Union City, Washington, January, 1894. 



INTRODUCTION 



The romance of the Oregon Territory, which includes the great 
States of Washington and Idaho, is unsurpassed in fiction and has 
the higher charm of absolute truth. 

Encamped on the eastern border, the early New England colo- 
nists little dreamed of the vastness of this Western empire or 
the magnitude of its economic future. By purchase they obtained 
the vague domain of Louisiana, and afterward became conscious 
of the existence of an indefinite tract of country stretching ofi" 
into the far-distant and almost inaccessible Northwest. From 
Indians and from Pacific navigators came hints and from the 
Hudson's Bay Company reliable tidings of a fur-producing wilder- 
ness away toward the sunset, 

Where rolls the Oregou, and hears no sound save its own dashing. 

It was not the conquest of territory that first stirred the 
interest of Americans in this direction; the earliest movement 
was for evangelization of the native population. It was really 
a foreign country, and the American Board of Commissioners 
for Foreign Missions made the first advances. When they sent 
out such men as Whitman and Eells they sought for souls, not 
soil. Little thought those bold, indomitable missionaries, who 
journeyed weary weeks from St. Louis toward the blue waters of 

5 



6 INTRODUCTION, 

Puget Sound, that they would live to see there three great states, 
the pride of the Union, rich in wheat waving on a million fertile 
fields, bearing a priceless beard of lofty fir and cedar forests, 
having choice orchards on the banks of rivers which run salmon 
enough for a nation, and shipping its products to the Atlantic sea- 
board over four transcontinental railroad lines, and to the far 
Orient by oceanic steamships from Tacoma to China and the New 
Japan. But Dr. Cushing Eells, after his rigorous bridal tour of 
three thousand miles, after a patient service of fifty-five fruitful 
years, resulting in the evangelization of Indian tribes, the founding 
of two colleges and many churches, and the ripe accumulations of 
fourscore years, did see all that; and if his unbounded modesty 
had not forbidden could have honestly said, concerning the reli- 
gious and moral transformations at least, '•'' Magna pars fui.''^ 

The story of Dr. Eells which is now given to the public by one 
well worthy to be his faithful and loving chronicler is not the 
history of a man but of a movement, and a movement of great 
significance to our whole American nation. The vast wealth borne 
on the surface and buried in the mold and mines of the North- 
west our children will estimate more accurately than we can ; but 
whatever its uncounted value shall prove to be, it basks beneath 
the glorious folds of the Stars and Stripes because such men as 
Eells and Whitman were here, statesmen as well as Christians, 
and because they traversed the wild mountains and taught the 
wild tribes with an intelligent and far-seeing patriotism, wisely 
coupled with Christian sweetness and light, married also to an 
indomitable will and undying determination. 

Such tales as those which follow can have no duplicate. If the 
men are born, the opportunity cannot recur. Unknown empires 



INTBODUGTION. 7 

within our indeterminate borders exist no longer; the age is late, 
the titles have been disputed, the domain explored, the lines 
drawn. We shall send no more foreign missionaries to distant 
fields and waken to find the land still our own and the title won 
by a caravan of settlers led over the mountain passes by a conse- 
crated missionary of the cross, an appointee of the American 
Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions. 

It is best to read this well, for between the lines of personal 
biography runs the cipher tale of a new nation, still under the old 
flag, but destined to play a signal part in the future of American 
life and national power through its limitless resources. The 
Indians will pass away, but the Indians of the Northwest will 
wear in the heavenly fields the white robes, because Father Eells 
pointed them tenderly to the faithful shepherd, the Christ. The 
front rank of settlers, the pioneer missionaries, has even now van- 
ished— Dr. Eells was the last of them; but the institutions they 
founded, the churches they builded, the works they finished, abide. 
They molded the infant civilization, and the print of their faith 
will not be transient. 

Verily it was an honor to know Father Eells, and a rare privi- 
lege to sit and listen to his thrilling tales of early struggles and 
later conquest for his Master. The little penknife given him in 
Hosmer's store in Hartford, before he started for the frontier, he 
showed me the Friday before his death, his companion for fifty 
years ; and many a deft bit of surgery it performed in the hand of 
its skillful owner. It wasn't much like a case of modern sur- 
geon's tools, but that difference illustrates the fine contrast 
between this modest, old-fashioned servant of God and some of 
his luxurious suooessors. As simple in his faith and in his rigor- 



8 INTB OD UCTION. 

ous economy of living and in his transparent worth as the true 
blade he carried unchanged for half a century, he was a benedic- 
tion to all who knew him. And with all that simplicity he had 
only charity for his brethren and fine appreciation of every mark 
of respect and deed of kindness that any brother might pay him. 

I saw his life go out like stars at the coming of the dawn. On 
Friday he mounted his famous horse, Le Blond, at my door and 
rode ofl". On Sunday he listened reverently as I preached. On 
"Wednesday in the early morning, with the old trait of doing 
promptly what was to be done, he left us for the last journey. 
The longed-for eighty years were completed, and our Father's 
House was richer by the entrance of faithful Father Eells. 

As you read, remember the rigors of his early years, the mellow- 
ness of his final harmonies, and the rare unselfishness of his whole 
eventful career. " Whose faith follow." 

With deep and tender respect I sign myself, in gratitude for the 
honor, his last pastor, 

L. H. HALLOCK. 

Tacoma, Washington, OctQber, 1896. 



CONTENTS 



CHAPTER I. 

BIRTH, ANCESTRY, AND EARLY LIFE. 

AGE 

Birth. — Major Samuel Eells. — Other ancestors. — Character- 
istics of the family. —Justice to the Indians. — Ministry.— 
Patriotism. — Education. — Lonj? life. — Blandf ord. — Incident. 

— Conversion. —Education at Blandford. — East Granville. — 
Dr. Coe. — Monson Academy. — Williams College. — East 
Windsor. — The Zulus. — Ordination. — Marriage. — Mrs. 
Eells 15 

CHAPTER II. 

CROSSING THE CONTINENT. 

1838. 

Change of life work. — Early Oregon missions. — Bridal 
tour. — To New York.- Julia Brace. — Instructions. — Sab- 
bath incident. — To Cincinnati. — Pack saddles. — Slavery. — 
Missouri. —Packing. — First day. — American Fur Company. 

— Mode of travel. — Nicking a horse. — Buffalo meat. — Fort 
Laramie. — North Fork of Platte. — Rain. —Mrs. Walker. — 
Crossing Sweetwater. — American rendezvous. —Fourth of 
July. —Fort Hall. — Bois6. —Arrival at Dr. Whitman's . . 33 



10 CONTENTS, 

CHAPTER III. 

OREGON IN 1838. 

PAGE 

Government. — Population. — Hudson's Bay Company. — Set- 
tlements.— Passports. —United States in 1838. — Large cities. 

— "Wagons. — Houses. — Furniture. — Hotels. — Sacks. — 
Clothes. — Beef. — Matches. — Post offices. — Mail. — Stores. — 
Money. — Mrs. Eells' impressions. — Indians. — Their number. 63 

CHAPTER IV. 

THE MISSION ESTABLISHED. 

1838-48. 

Arrangements. — Messrs. Smith, Rogers, Gray, Spalding, 
Walker, Whitman. — To Colville. — Selecting station. — At 
Dr. Whitman's, 1838-39. — To Tshimukain. — Gardens. —Frost. 

— The Spokane language. — School. — Packing. — Religious 
instruction. — General work. — 1840. — Habits of Indians. — 
Religious instruction. — School. — Indian * character. — Pros- 
pects. — Fire. — Progress. — School. — Music. — Travels. — 
School. — Dr. Whitman's journey east in 1842-43. — Whitman 
controversy. — 1844. — Progress. — Maternal association. — 
Severe winter of 1846-47. — Shoes. — Shawls. — Cheese. — 
Death of Mrs. Eells' father. — Prospect 82 

CHAPTER V. 

THE MISSION BROKEN UP. 

Massacre of Dr. Whitman. — Providences which saved Mr. 
Eells. — Incident about Mr. Walker. — Fidelity of the Spo- 
kanes. — False rumors. — Cayuse war. —^ Removal to Fort Col- 
ville. — War whoop. — Councils. — In dangers oft. — Travels. 

— Good-by to Tshimakaiu. — To the Willamette. — Spokane 



CONTENTS. 11 

PAGE 

Indians. — Dr. Dart. — "W. H. Bennett. — Yakima war. — Colonel 
Wright. — Big Star. — Major Lugeubeel. — Spokanes at "Walla 
Walla. — Chronological chart. — Revival of 1874. — Journey of 
1874; of 1875; of 1876. — Results. — Colonies. — William 
Three Mountains. — Present condition 125 



CHAPTER VI. 

IN THE WILLAMETTE VALLEY. 

1848-60. 

The Willamette in 1848. — Government. — Population. — 
Towns. — Money. — Congregational ministers and churches. 
— Congregationalism then and now west of the Mississippi. — 
West of New England. — Teaching at Salem. — Hard times. — 
At Forest Grove. — Prices at Hillsborough. — Dismission from 
the Board. — Return to Forest Grove. — Building of the Con- 
gregational church. — Endowmentof a Professorship in Pacific 
University 158 

CHAPTER VII. 

WHITMAN SEMINARY. 

1860-82. 

Trip to Walla Walla in 1859. —Determination to found a 
school. — Summer of 1860 at the Whitman mission. — Walla 
Walla in I860. — Fourth of July. — First trustees' meeting, 
1861. —Winter of 1861-62.— Final removal in 1862. — Congre- 
gational church at Walla Walla. — Horse stealing. — Vigilance 
committee. — Location and building of Whitman Seminary, — 
Dedication. — Teaching in Whitman Seminary. — School su- 
perintendent of Walla Walla County. — Paying the debt on the 
seminary. — Burned out. — Removal to Skokoraish. — Teachers 
in Whitman Seminary from 1869 to 1882 172 



12 CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER YIII. 

WHITMAN COLLEGE. 

1882-93. 

PAGE 

Dr. A. J. Anderson. — Going east. — National Council.— 
Disappointment. — Feelings. — Extracts from letters and jour- 
nal. —Will.— Incidental pleasures. —Relatives. — Blandford. 
Return to Washington. —New college buildings. — Fiftieth 
anniversary.- Denominational relations of the college.— 
President Eaton 199 



CHAPTER IX. 

HOME MISSIONARY WORK, 

1872-81. 

Who is a home missionary?- Puget Sound in 1872. — Sko 
komish and vicinity. — To Col ville, 1874. — 1875. — Le Blond.— 
Seventieth birthday of Mrs. Eells. — At Colville in 1876.— 
Mrs. Eells to Forest Grove. — Magnetic drawing east of the 
Cascade Mountains. — Northeastern Washington in 1874.— 
Colfax. — Organization of church. — Letters to the church. 
— To Dr. D. S. Baker. — Fortieth anniversary of marriage. — 
Death of Mrs. Eells. — Building of the church at Colfax.— 
Prayers. — School superintendent. — Resignation as pastor . 219 

CHAPTER X. 

HOME MISSIONARY WORK, CONTINUED. 

1875-88. 

Out-stations. — Dayton. — Chewelah and Colville. — First 
and last work in Washington. — Cheney. — Charge and right 
hand of fellowship to Rev. F. T. Clark, Spokane. — Tribute 



CONTENTS. 13 

PAGE 

of Dr. Atkinson. — Removal to Medical Lake. — To Cheney. — 
Sprague. — Medical Lake. — Return there. — Pleasant Prairie. 
—Denominational zeal. —Resignation. — Prayers .... 248 

CHAPTER XI. 
LAST DAYS. 

1888-93. 

Retired, yet preaching. — Fiftieth Anniversary. — Four- 
score. — Last trip to Skokomish. — Baptism of grandchildren 
and death of one. — Ministerial Alliance. — Eighty-one. — 
Death of his brother Charles. — La grippe. — Injury. — 
Thoughts of death. — Death of fellow workers.— Death.— 
Funeral. — Memorial Services. — Tributes 272 



CHAPTER XII. 

CHARACTERISTICS. 

Pioneer. — Memory. — Precision. — Economy. — Prayer. — 
Benevolence. — Consistency. — Love for Christian education. 
— For the ministry. — For the missionary work. — Consecra- 
tion. — Trial and faith. — An answer to skeptics. — An ordi- 
nary man. — Changes. — In due time ye shall reap if ye faint 
not. — Conclusion 310 



FATHER EELLS 

OR 

The Results of Fifty-five Years of Missionary 
Labors in Washington and Oregon. 



CHAPTER I. 

BIRTH, ANCESTRY, AND EARLY LIFE. 

GUSHING EELLS was born at Blandford, in 
western Massachusetts, February 16, 1810, and 
was the son of Joseph and Elizabeth (Warner) Eells. 
He was the third child and oldest son of a family of 
ten, all of whom lived to be of age. 

The first of the Eells family to come to America was 
John, who arrived in Massachusetts probably in 1630. 
He lived at Dorchester until 1640, when he returned to 
Barnstable, England. He never came back to Amer- 
ica. He took with him his infant son Samuel, who was 
born at Dorchester, Mass., June 23, 1639, and bap- 
tized by Rev. Richard Mather. Samuel remained in 
England until 1661. While there he was a major 
in Cromwell's army, among those "Ironsides" whose 

15 



16 FATHEB EELLS, 

motto was to "trust in God and keep their powder 
dry." When he was twenty-two years old he returned 
to this continent and became the progenitor of all 
of the name in America. He went to Connecticut 
and was one of the' first settlers of Milford. He 
was a man of wealth, a lawyer, and commanded a 
garrison in King Philip's War. He died April 21, 
1709. 

The following is the direct line of descent from him 
to Gushing : the youngest son of Major Samuel was 
Rev. Nathaniel, born November 26, 1677, at Milford, 
who graduated at Harvard University in 1699 and 
settled at Scituate, Mass., in 1704, where he lived 
until his death, August 25, 1750. 

His second son was Rev. Nathaniel, who was born 
February 4, 1710, graduated at Harvard in 1728, and 
settled in Stonington, Conn., where he remained until 
his death in 1786, at the age of seventy-six years, 
fifty-three of which he spent in the ministry. ^ He 
married Mercy Cushing, a daughter of Hon. John 
Gushing, from whence came the name for the subject 
of this sketch. 

His third son was Deacon Nathaniel, who was born 



1 He Is mentioned in the centennial papers of the General Confer- 
ence of Connecticut, gathered in 1876, and an election sermon of his, 
preached before the General Assembly of the Colony of Connecticut at 
Hartford, May 12, 1748, and printed by the printer to the Governor and 
Company, is in the possession of the writer. 



BIBTH, ANCESTBY, AND EABLY LIFE. 17 

July 16, 1749. He lived at North Coventry, Conn., 
and died at Bolton, in the same state, December 20, 
1799. 

His fifth child was Joseph, the father of Cashing, 
who was born at Coventry, May 12, 1781 ; married, 
first, Elizabeth Warner, of Windham, Conn., by whom 
he had nine children, and who died at Blandford, 
April 27, 1822 ; and second, Abigail Green, by whom 
he had one daughter. He died at Norwalk, Ohio, 
January 1, 1861. 

It is proper here to note a few items in regard to 
the family in general. Love of justice to the Indian 
was one strong trait in the character of Major Samuel 
Eells. The historian of King Philip's AVar says Cap- 
tain Eells immortalized his name by his opposition to 
the diabolical act of government (the Plymouth Col- 
ony) in selling Indian captives as slaves. "In- 
deed," says Rev. W. W. Eells, a distant relative of 
Cushing, "had not his plans been overruled by mere 
force, there would have been no such war." Brownell 
says in his Indian Races of America : ^ " Not far from 
this time (July, 1675), the town of Dartmouth, 
having been in a great measure destroyed by the 
enemy, a large number of Indians, not less than one 
liundred and sixty, who had dwelt in the country 
thereabout, and who were not active partakers in the 
1 Page 242. 



18 FATHEB EELL8, 

destruction of the town, delivered themselves up to 
one Captain Eells, upon promises of good treatment. 
They were nevertheless taken to Pkmouth, sold by 
the colonial authorities as slaves, and transported to 
foreign ports. Captains Church and Eells made upon 
this occasion the most vehement remonstrances, ex- 
pressed by Church with his characteristic energy and 
spirit ; but all to no purpose, as it only secured 
him the ill-will of the government. The act was 
grossly impolitic, as well as perfidious and cruel." 
With such an ancestor it has not been strange that the 
same idea of justice to the Indian remains in the 
family. 

An inclination toward the ministry has also been 
prominent in the family. Major Samuel Eells was 
not a minister, but he married the daughter of Robert 
Linthal, the first minister of Weymouth, Mass., who, 
although she died when her son Nathaniel was only 
twelve years old, seems to have left such an impress 
on him that he entered the ministry. So did his son. 

In speaking of Edward Eells, Jr., then recently 
licensed to preach, The Presbyterian Banner of Octo- 
ber 7, 1885, says : " He is the twentieth of the same 
name and family in the ministry of the gospel since 
1703. All but one of these have been in Congrega- 
tional or Presbyterian churches, graduates of Harvard, 
Yale, Williams, Hamilton, Pacific University, or the 



BIBTH, ANCESTBY, AND EABLY LIFE, 19 

University of Virginia, and all sound in the faith of 
the Westminster standards. Besides these, the multi- 
tude who as deacons and elders have served the 
Church is unnumbered. And not by any means less 
are the many daughters of the family, who, as the 
wives and mothers of clergymen of other names, have 
served or are serving the cause of Christ in stations 
no less responsible." 

Among the children of Rev. Edward Eells, a son 
of the first Rev. Nathaniel, of Scituate, were three 
clergymen. In 1836 James Henry Eells, who was 
the fifth educated clergyman in direct ancestral line, 
was drowned. 

Patriotism too has been noticeable. Rev. Samuel 
Eells (son of Edward just mentioned) was pastor 
at North Branford, Conn., during the Revolutionary 
War. He raised a volunteer company from his own 
congregation, of which he was chosen captain, but 
fortunately there was no occasion for his services. 

Captain Robert L. Eells, grandson of the first Rev. 
Nathaniel, is said, in the History of Hanover, to 
have been eminently patriotic and an able officer in 
the Revolutionary War. He was on the committee of 
correspondence and safety from 1775 to 1780. The 
same book names Samuel, Samuel, Jr., Robert, and 
William W., as soldiers in the same war, from the 
same town as Captain Robert L. Eells. 



20 FATHER EELLS. 

Rev. Nathaniel Eells, of Slonington, Codd. (great- 
grandfather of Gushing Eells), preached a Thanks- 
giving sermon in 1777, immediately after the defeat 
of Burgoyne. He said: " God has blessed the arms 
of the country with victory and success beyond our 
most sanguine expectations. And what a damp must 
this prove to the European troops, when they hear 
that the Lord is with us to fight our battles, and to 
pull down our enemies ! And when the news does 
cross the Atlantic and pierce the ears of the king 
and ministry and parliament of Great Britain, how 
they will gnash their teeth and melt away, to hear 
that their boasted general and so great a part of 
their chosen troops are become a prey to the poor 
Americans ! " ^ 

The preacher was appointed chaplain of a regiment 
to be raised and stationed at New London, Conn. 

His son, Rev. John Eells, whose ministry also 
spanned the Revolution, was so patriotic that when the 
news of the battle of Lexington reached Glastonbury, 
Conn., during divine service, it was announced from 
the pulpit.^ 

Deacon E. S. Tanner and Dr. Cushing Eells were 

both in the Walla Walla valley more or less during the 

Civil War. A considerable number of its settlers 

» Centennial papers of the General Conference of Connecticut, 1876, 
p. 77. 
Ubid.p.50. 



BIRTH, ANCESTBY, AND E ABLY LIFE. 21 

sympathized strongly with the South — so strongly 
that they elected a man as sheriff . who, when he 
learned that he was elected, publicly said that he 
would give five hundred dollars to know that Abra- 
ham Lincoln was killed, and another five hundred to 
know that Jefferson Davis was President of the 
United States. Hence it was not strange that much 
fault was found with those who favored the Union. 
Deacon Tanner once said that it made Dr. Eells feel 
quite badly when he could not at a Sabbath service 
pray for the President and country without being 
found fault with severely. 

One nephew of Dr. Eells lost his life in the Civil 
"War at the early age of sixteen, and the only nephew 
of Mrs. Eells able to bear arms was a lieutenant in 
the same war. 

In the item about ministers it was said that twenty 
ministers, all but one college bred, had come from the 
family. Higher education has been an objective 
among many of the family. Rev. Edward Eells was 
for some years a tutor in Yale College, and also for 
several years a trustee of the same institution. John 
Eells, a brother of Dr. Gushing Eells, was one of the 
founders and trustees of the Western Female Sem- 
inary, at Oxford, Ohio. Rev. James Eells, d.d., was 
also for some years before his death a professor in 
the Lane Theological Seminary, at Cincinnati, Ohio. 



22 FATHEB BELLS. 

Long life is another characteristic of the family. 
Major Samuel Eells died at seventy, his son at 
seventy-three, and his son was seventy-six. Dr. 
Eells' grandfather lived to be fifty, his grandmother 
to be eighty-four. The seven children of this grand- 
father averaged sixty-nine years. The average age 
of the nine brothers and sisters of Dr. Eells was 
fifty-eight, their father having been over seventy-nine 
years and seven months. 

It is not strange that Rev. W. W. Eells, of Pitts- 
burg, Penn., wrote to the author thus in 1872: "I 
do not know what interest you may take in the gene- 
alogy of our family, but there is certainly no harm in 
knowing that we came of honorable and pious ances- 
try. Ours is eminently such. Wherever I have met 
any of the name (and I have met very many) they 
are almost invariably sound in the faith of the old- 
fashioned gospel. The God of our fathers has kept 
his covenant with the children." 

Gushing Eells spent his early years in his native 
place, Blandford, on a spur of the Green Mountains. 
To the writer, in 1870, on account of its rocky nature, 
it looked as if it would make those who lived there 
energetic or shiftless — energetic if they should con- 
quer the obstacles of nature enough to obtain a living 
from the soil, but shiftless if they should succumb to 
nature, as then they wguld receive no return. The 



BIRTH, ANCESTBY, AND EARLY LIFE. 23 

writer bad evidence that it had acted in both ways, 
making the inhabitants in 1810 energetic, while having 
an opposite effect on the man who lived in the Eells 
homestead in 1870, as he was barefoot, and looked 
decidedly discouraged. 

Dorus Clarke, d.d., the early pastor of Gushing, 
tells the following story of him : — 

At one time there was considerable religious interest 
in the community, and Dr. Clarke visited the family 
to converse on the subject. Cushing, seeing him 
coming, and fearing that the pastor wished to talk 
with him, slipped out the back door as the pastor 
came in the front one, and ran away. And yet this 
runaway afterwards became a missionary. 

His own account of his conversion is as follows, 
dictated by himself a year before death : — 

*'In 1825, when past fifteen years of age, there was 
special religious interest in our place. I was working 
alone in a field when I believe the Spirit of God came 
upon me. My sins were set in order before me. I was 
alone, hoeing potatoes. I rested, leaned upon my hoe, 
and wept. I wept so freely that I was ashamed to ap- 
pear at home without apply mg water to my face. I 
went to a spring and washed my face. For several 
weeks I was under conviction of sin. One morning I 
awoke with increased conviction, and did not arise 



24 FATHEB EELL^. 

until after breakfast. I walked to the barn. I said to 
myself : ' I have heard people speak of the burden of 
sin ; I now feel that burden.' I returned to my cham- 
ber ; an experience that I cannot well define was had. 
I realized that the burden was gone. I was fearful 
that I had grieved away the Spirit, and if I had done 
so I was apprehensive that my condition was sealed 
asainst me. I was in o;reater distress than before, 
and yet the burden had left me. I wanted to get 
back my feelings, and knowing that a certain young 
man was working in a field not far distant, I went 
to see him. My object in doing so was that I hoped 
he would say something that would bring back my 
former feelings. He, however, perceived the evi- 
dence of a change, and said so. I could not readily 
accept the correctness of his ideas. I returned home. 
My oldest sister was a professing Christian. She met 
me as I reached home. She asked me if I felt differ- 
ently ; I made no replv. I had heard others say 
that the Bible seemed different to them after they 
had experienced a change. I went to the Bible and 
opened it ; it looked as it had previously done. Not 
many days after I called on this young man again — 
King Hastings was his name. I said : ' Can it be that 
my heart has been changed when I have so many 
wicked thoughts?' His reply was, in substance: 
'That is the very evidence that it has been changed. 



BIRTH, ANCESTBY, AND EABLY LIFE. 25 

Heretofore your wicked thoughts did not trouble you ; 
they do now.' Rev. Dorus Clarke, my pastor, had 
said that when his heart was changed it was in the 
night, but it was the lightest day he ever saw. I then 
thought: 'If my heart shall be changed, I shall know 
it ; it will be as plain as passing from a dark room to 
a light one.' I will not dwell on that, only the Scrip- 
ture saith : 'The path of the just is as a shining light, 
that shineth more and more unto the perfect day.' 
That was my experience — like the dim light of the 
early morning ; but it continued to grow brighter, and 
since 1825 to the present time that Scripture has been 
expressive of my experience." 

While the evidence to himself and friends was at 
that time satisfactory that he was a Christian, while 
his friends of like experience united with the church, 
while by word and deed he confessed Christ openly 
— yet, to use his own expression fifty-five years later, 
he ' ' foolishly and wickedly deferred becoming a mem- 
ber of the church till the spring of 1827." 

Simeon Shurtleff, the sou of a neighbor, about that 
time determined to get a college education. His 
father, Mr. Eells' father, and their minister consulted 
and thought that Cushing should do likewise. At first 
the idea was not acceptable, as he did not think him- 
self a bright enough scholar, but afterwards, a's he 



26 FATHER EELLS, 

thought more, he determined to do as they thought 
best. The minister, Dr. Clarke, opened a select 
school, where four or five scholars went and studied 
grammar only during the winter of 1825-26. The 
next spring Gushing borrowed a Latin grammar, which 
he studied at home. A short time after arrange- 
ments were made for him to go to East Granville, 
a town seven miles distant. There he studied the 
greater part of the next summer under Dr. Timothy 
M. Cooley, the pastor, walking there on Monday 
mornings and returning on Saturday afternoons. 
Near that road lived Deacon Coe. His son David 
was then at work on his father's farm. As he saw 
Gushing walking to and from school he thought that 
he too might do something besides working on a 
farm. His thoughts took such a turn that he went 
through Williams Gollege and entered the ministry. 
For many years, as D. B. Goe, d.d., he was one of 
the secretaries of the American Home Missionary 
Society. About forty-five years afterwards, when he 
commissioned a son of Dr. Gushing Eells as a home 
missionary to the Pacific coast, he told him how those 
walks of the father had had quite an influence in lead- 
ing himself into his great life-work. 

Through the influence of Dr. Glarke, after a time it 
was thought best that young Eells should change his 
place of study, and he went to Monson Academy, 



BIBTH, ANCESTBY, AND EABLY LIFE. 27 

where he prepared for college under Rev. Simeon 
Colton. The idea of receiving help from the Edu- 
cation Society was suggested. He walked from Mon- 
son to Amherst, where he met Dr. Heman Humphrey 
and President Edward Hitchcock. They recom- 
mended him to the society, and from that time he 
received twelve dollars a quarter during his academy 
course, with the exception of one quarter, when he 
taught school. After he entered college this aid was 
increased to seventy-five dollars a year. To obtain 
this he signed notes without interest ; but when he 
entered missionary work he was released from all 
these notes, that being the custom of the Education 
Society. He always felt grateful to the society, how- 
ever, and occasionally made donations to it. After 
he sold his farm, — the Whitman Mission, — in 1872, 
he gave the society one thousand dollars, thus fully 
repaying it. 

In 1830 he entered Williams College. He gradu- 
ated four years later in the same class with Hon. 
Alexander Hyde, E. H. Griffin, d.d., and Senator 
James Dixon of Connecticut. 

The distance between his home and college was 
forty-five miles. When he entered his father took 
him, his few books and small baggage, in a one- 
horse wagon. During the winter of 1831-32, with a 
one-horse cutter, his father accompanied him to Pitts- 



28 FATHEB EELL8. 

field, twenty-five miles. At this place his father 
turned back, and he walked to his destination. The 
snow path and ice were trying to the strength of 
pedestrians. In one limb he suffered for several 
weeks. By the kindness of a friend he once rode 
two thirds of the distance. At his graduation a 
sister and brother went and took liim home in a 
one-horse wagon. The rest of his trips, two or 
three each year, he walked the entire distance, too 
poor to do otherwise. In 1829, caught in a snow- 
storm, he rode seven miles in a stage. In 1835 or 
1836 he passed from Hartford to New Haven in a 
steamer, and in 1837 he rode in a car from Worcester 
to Boston and back. That was the extent of his use 
of public conveyances while acquiring his education. 

After leaving college he entered East Windsor Theo- 
logical Institute in Connecticut in 1834, three years 
later finishing his studies. This institution, now the 
Hartford Theological Seminary, had then recently been 
established in defense of what its founders believed 
to be the old Pauline doctrines of the Bible, and was 
under Dr. Bennet Tyler, the great defender of what 
was then called Tylerism as against Taylorism, the 
latter being defended by Dr. Nathaniel Taylor, of the 
New Haven Theological Seminary. For these doc- 
trines and this institution he ever retained the warmest 
affection. When in 1868 his son determined to enter 



BIBTH, ANCESTBY, AND EARLY LIFE. 29 

the ministry, the father turned immediately to the 
same institution as by far the best. Dr. Eells was in 
its second graduating class. 

Early in his studies he thought of the heathen 
world. One night while walking in his father's 
orchard, he said to himself: "If I get an education 
and become a missionary, very likely I shall experi- 
ence trials greater than I have any conception of now." 

Through the consecration of Samuel J. Mills and 
a few likemiuded persons, about 1808, a Society of 
Inquiry on Missions had been formed at the college. 
It was called the Mills Society. It was composed of 
those who intended becoming home or foreign mission- 
aries if Providence permitted. Mr. Eells became a 
member. During his last year in college the question 
came to him: "Which — home or foreign mission- 
ary?" In the spring vacation of 1834 Rev. George 
Champion and his intended wife, who were under 
appointment to the Zulu Mission in Africa, were at 
Williamstown. He was invited to meet them. Then 
the sister of his very intimate friend and roommate. 
Rev. Elnathan Davis, of Holden, Mass., — the native 
place of Mrs. Eells, — was engaged to be married to 
Rev. Aldin Grout, who went to the same place. ^ 

1 Among the very interesting items of Dr. Eells' trip to New England 
in 1883-4, was a meeting with that family in Springfield, Massachusetts, 
Mr. Grout, who was about eight years older than Dr. Eells, being then 
superannuated. 



30 FATHEIt EELLS. 

These events called his attention to Africa, and in 
1836 he offered himself to the American Board of 
Commissioners for Foreign Missions and was appointed 
to the Zulu Mission. His father could not acquiesce 
in this decision and never became fully reconciled to 
it. He left New England for Ohio two years before 
the son left Massachusetts. 

Gushing Eells was licensed to preach, December 14, 
1836, and was ordained at Blandford, Mass., October 
25, 1837, as a Congregational missionary to Africa. 
Judge R. P. Boise, in an address before the Pioneer 
Society of Oregon in 1876, in describing his arrival 
in Oregon in 1850, says: "Learning that Rev. Cush- 
ing Eells, who was from my native town in Massachu- 
setts, was living at Forest Grove, about twenty-five 
miles from St. Helens, and that I could reach him by 
leaving our craft and taking a new road across the 
mountains to the Tualatin plains, I bade adieu to my 
companions on the river voyage and started on foot 
for Forest Grove, where I arrived in two days without 
particular adventure. I found Mr. Eells living in -a 
comfortable log house near where now stands Pacific 
University. I knew him, though he did not know me, 
for I was a boy when he left our native place on his 
mission to the Indians in Oregon. I had seen him 
ordained for his holy office, and remember now as 
though it were yesterday of seeing Dr. Davis and 



BIRTH, ANCESTBY, AND EABLY LIFE. 31 

other divines lay their hands upon his head, in the old 
church at Blandford, and consecrate him to God and 
the Church ; and of the singing on that occasion of 
that grand old missionary hymn : — 

" Go, messenger of peace and love, 
To people plunged in shades of night; 
Like angels sent from fields above, 
Be thine to shed celestial light." 

While Mr. Eells was pursuing his studies he 
taught school during one of his vacations in Holden, 
Mass. He there became acquainted with Miss Myra 
Fairbank. The acquaintance increased to friendship ; 
the friendship to affection ; the affection to marriage 
— to a happy married life of over forty years. She 
was the daughter of Deacon Joshua and Mrs. Sally 
H. Fairbank, of Holden, Mass., where she was born 
Maj' 26, 1805. Her father was deacon in the Congre- 
gational church from 1818 until his death, in 1838, at 
the age of fifty-eight. 

Myra was the oldest of eight children. It is said 
that both on her mother's and father's side she was a 
pure Yankee. She made a profession of religion 
when thirteen, uniting with the Congregational church 
at her native place, and at seventy said that she had 
never been sorry that she had begun to serve the 
Saviour when so young. She received her education 
at a ladies' seminary at Wethersfield, Conn. Before 



32 FATHEB EELLS. 

her marriage when she was asked by Mr. Eells if she 
would be willing to become a missionary, she replied : 
*' I doubt whether you could have asked any one who 
would have been more willing." In a copy-book of 
hers, written at Wethersfield in 1835, are two selected 
poems on missionary work one of which begins : — 

I go, my friend, where heathen dwell; 

Then if on earth we meet no more, 
Accept this cordial, short farewell, 

Till we shall meet on Canaan's shore. 

The Holden book of records contains the following 
simple item : — 

*' March 5, 1838. Rev. Gushing Eells, of East 
Windsor, Conn., and Myra Fairbank were married by 
William P. Paine." 



CHAPTER II. 

CROSSING THE CONTINENT. 

1838. 

A LTHOUGH Mr. Eelis and Miss Fairbank were 
-^^^ appointed as missionaries to Southeastern 
Africa, Providence had a different work for them. 
When Mr. Eells graduated from the seminary two 
powerful chiefs of the Zulus, Dingaan and Mosilikatzi, 
were at war with each other, and it was not thought 
advisable to send out a reinforcement then ; so his 
voyage was delayed. The next winter was spent in 
teaching school, an employment in which he had spent 
most of his vacations. 

The information gained by the Oregon Indians from 
the Hudson's Bay Company and other traders and 
trappers, early in the present century, led them to 
send four or five Nez Perces to St. Louis, in 1832, to 
secure religious teachers. Their call was made pub- 
lic, as that of " wise men of the west," early in 1833, 
and in 1834 Rev. Jason Lee, with his nephew Rev. 
Daniel Lee and two laymen, Cyrus Shepherd and 
P. L. Edwards, crossed the continent under the au- 
spices of the Missionary Society of the Methodist 



34 FATHEB EELLS. 

Episcopal Church, and began work in the Willamette 
valley. 

About the beginning of the same year Rev. Samuel 
Parker, of Ithaca, offered himself to the American 
Board to go to Oregon to explore and report. So 
much time, however, was occupied in consultation 
and arrangements, that although he started he was 
too late to accompany the Fur Company's caravan 
that year, without whose protection it was useless to 
proceed. Therefore he returned home, and spent the 
next winter in interesting the churches of Central 
and Western New York in the work. He then found 
Dr. Marcus Whitman and Miss Narcissa Prentiss. 
Both offered themselves for the work. The next 
spring, with Dr. Whitman, he started across the con- 
tinent to explore Oregon. When they reached the 
American Rendezvous, on Green River, a branch of 
the Colorado, where traders, trappers, travelers, and 
Indians assembled for their annual exchange of furs 
and articles of civilized manufacture, so much was 
learned from the Nez Perces and other Oregon 
Indians especially, that it seemed plain to Mr. Parker 
and Dr. Whitman that there was a clear call for mis- 
sionary work, and that it was much better to give up 
the plan of both proceeding to Oregon and then 
returning for assistance. A year would be saved if 
Dr. Whitman should return from that place and 



OBOSSmG THE CONTINENT. 35 

secure help, while Mr. Parker could go on aud make 
exploratioDS. This plan was accordingly adopted. 
Mr. Parker did the proposed work aud returned home 
by the Sandwich Islands and Cape Horn. Dr. Whit- 
man returned, married Miss Prentiss, and secured 
Rev. H. H. Spalding and wife and Mr. W. H. Gray 
as helpers. They crossed the continent in 1836, the 
two ladies being the first white women who ever had 
done so. Dr. Whitman settled at Waiilatpu, in the 
Walla Walla valley, now known as the Whitman mis- 
sion. Mr. Spalding chose Lapwai among the Nez 
Perces as his home, while Mr. Gray assisted in both 
places. That winter the call for more laborers proved 
so urgent that Mr. Gray returned east in 1837 for 
the needed assistance. When he presented the case 
before the Missionary Board, they asked Mr. Eells if 
he were willing to change his destination. He aud 
his betrothed consented and their whole future was 
changed. The issue proved the wisdom of tlie 
change, for God makes no mistakes. 

Rev. Elkanah Walker, of North Yarmouth, Maine, 
with Miss Mary Richardson, to whom he was engaged, 
had also been appointed to Africa, but they, too, con- 
sented to engage in the Oregon work. Rev. A. B. 
Smith, of Connecticut, and his wife were also secured. 
Mr. Gray made Miss Mary A. Dix, of Champlain, 
N. Y., his wife. They were joined at Cincinnati 



36 FATHER EELL8. 

by Mr. Cornelius Rogers, a young man who went as 
an independent missionary, but after bis arrival in 
Oregon was appointed an assistant missionary. Thus 
the missionary band for that year was complete. 

On March 6, the day after their marriage, Mr. and 
Mrs. Eells began their bridal tour, which was not com- 
pleted for more than a year, until the last of April, 
1839. Then they were ready to receive callers in 
their own home or log huts or pens. 

The account of this journey is obtained from the 
journal of Mrs. Eells and from Dr. Eells' recollec- 
tions more than fifty years afterwards. 

Mrs. Eells' first item is in reference to parting at 
home : — 

"March 5, 1838. My Affectionate Parents: How- 
ever uninteresting such a memorandum may be to 
others, it may sometime give you satisfaction to read 
a few hasty sketches from an absent and far distant 
daughter; to you, therefore, they are most cheerfully 
devoted. 

March G. " Left home and all who are near and dear 
by nature and affection with the expectation of never 
seeing them again in this world." [She never did.] 

From the 6th until the 17th the time was spent 
in visiting aud traveling to New York city. From 
Holden to Worcester they were taken in the snow 
on runners, and from Worcester to East Windsor 



CBOiSSmG THE CONTINENT. 37 

in the mud — a very different method from that in 
use fort3'-five years later when Dr. Eells made the 
same trip easily in the cars. 

At Hartford they met Julia Brace, who was deaf, 
dumb, and blind, and yet they saw her place a needle 
on her tongue and the thread in her mouth, and in a 
few seconds the needle was threaded. She would also 
distinguish by feeling between two different silk 
handkerchiefs from the same web, so near alike that 
other persons could not do tlie same when seeing 
them. 

At New York they met, for the first time. Rev. E. 
Walker and wife, who had been married on the same 
day as themselves, and who were to be their compan- 
ions and associates for ten years, as well as trusted 
friends through life. On the Sabbath, the 18th, the 
two couples received their instructions as missionaries 
from Secretary Greene, of the Board, at the Brick 
Presbyterian Church of which Gardiner Spring, d.d., 
was pastor. The instructions were followed by 
remarks from Dr. Spring. The concluding prayer 
was made by Secretary Armstrong. The next day, 
having been delayed. Rev. A. B. Smith and wife 
who were also to be their associates, arrived. 

On the afternoon of the 20th they left the East, 
*' after receiving the advice and counsel of many 
friends in New York." Mrs. Eells wrote : '^ Mr. 



38 FATHEE EELLS, 

Armstrong commended us to God as our only 
Preserver and Protector, praying that our lives 
and health might be spared and that we might be 
abundantly blessed among the heathen and finally 
receive the welcome plaudit of our divine Master, 
' Well done, good and faithful servant, enter thou 
into the joy of thy Lord.' Mr. W. W. Chester, 
Mr. S. V. S. Wilder, Mr. Armstrong and others 
accompanied us to the boat, where we had a solemn 
parting." 

Steamers and cars took them rapidly to Chambers- 
burg in Pennsylvania, where they found a stage to 
Pittsburg. This part of the journey, which occupied 
more than three days and nights, was trying. The 
driver had promised to take them to Pittsburg before 
the Sabbath, but Saturday night found them still 
thirty miles from the place. The question arose. 
Should Ihey stop or go on? The regular stage was 
full and went on. The missionary party and one 
other gentleman with his wife occupied an extra stage. 
Its driver was willing to abide- by the will of the 
majority. If they should stay, it would cost five 
dollars a couple ; if they should reach Pittsburg, 
friends would care for them gratis. It was decided 
to stop. This very much offended the gentleman and 
wife, although they said they were Christians and 
were going West to do good. To appease him the 



CBOSSmG THE CONTINENT. 39 

missionaries paid his hotel bill. On Montlay they 
overtook the regular stage, which had broken down, 
and they reached Pittsburg first. 

At Cincinnati the question of traveling on the 
Sabbath, while crossing the continent, came seriously 
before them. The advice of Dr. Lyman Beecher was 
asked. He said substantially that if he were in a 
ship on the ocean when Saturday night should come, 
he should not jump into the sea. 

Though they were obliged to travel with the Fur 
Company on the Sabbath until they reached the Rocky 
Mountains, it caused Mrs. Eells many sorrowful 
thoughts. She could not see how it was right to 
break one of God's commandments in order to fulfill 
another. 

At the same place Mr. Eells saw an article which 
he had never seen before and of the use of which he 
had no idea. He stopped and looked at it but asked 
no questions. At Independence a pile of these 
articles for the missionary party greeted him. It 
consisted of pack-saddles, to which he became as 
much accustomed during the next twelve years as he 
had been to the Greek language. 

In Missouri they saw more of slavery than ever 
before. Mrs. Eells wrote : — 

" Our chambermaid is a slave. She is owned by 
the captain of the boat. She can neither read nor 



40 FATHEB EELLS. 

write. She says that her master treats her kindly. 
We saw nothing to the contrary. See many poor 
slaves along the banks of the river, who to human 
appearances are degraded beyond description." 

The next da}^ she again wrote : — 

"To-day I have had my feelings moved almost 
to indignation on account of the wretchedness of 
slavery. I believe that it is a curse to the owner as 
well as to the slave. Our hearts are made to bleed for 
the misery of the poor slave. Oh, when will slavery 
come to an end ! " 

Between St. Louis and Independence they had an 
opportunity to see log houses with chimneys on the 
outside, which then seemed very strange, but to 
which in after years they became even more accus- 
tomed than they did to pack-saddles, for they lived in 
such for years. 

At Independence they met Mr. Gray and his wife. 
The band now consisted of five men and four women. 
Here they began their horseback riding, and at 
Westport, twelve miles farther west, they found the 
American Fur Company, their escort to the Rocky 
Mountains. Mrs. Eells' first introduction to this mode 
of travel was after dai'k on a horse which a woman 
had never before ridden. 

Packing now began. It was not easy to put the 
pack-saddles on Spanish mules, which were not very 



CEOS SING THE CONTINENT, 41 

tame. Then followed putting on the loads. There 
were eight trunks, bedding, tents, tent poles, food, 
medicines, and all the paraphernalia of four young 
families about to start on a land journey of nineteen 
hundred miles to an unknown home. Says Mr. 
Eells : — 

" At the commencement the laboring oar was 
emphatically with Mr. Gray. Three novices with 
willing hearts offered ready hands, but their awkward 
doings were not invariably and entirely helpful. 
Slowly the loads of the pack animals, the one small 
wagon, and riding animals were placed in position. 
There was a forward movement in the direction of 
Westport. The caravan had not gone far before 
there was a derangement of packs. The unwelcome 
disclosure was made that the horse attached to the 
wagon was unreliable. This load must be improved, 
that modified. Tlie call was for Mr. Gray here, Mr. 
Gray there, Mr. Gray everywhere. 

''In an attempt to ascend a hill the wagon-horse 
refused to pull. With all my might 1 lifted at the 
rear end of the wagon. This was oft repeated. The 
disobedient animal was stubborn, and the vehicle was 
thereby demoralized. My strength was exhausted. 
The next day another horse and wagon were procured 
at Westport." 

Mr. Walker gave out at an early date. As he lay 



42 FATHEB EELL8, 

on the ground he said to Mr. Eells : " You must have 
more help or 3'ou won't have me." Accordingly a 
large, strong man, named Stevens, was emplo^^ed as 
packer. He served until the party reached Walla 
Walla. They also hired another man as hunter, 
whose name was Richardson. 

As Mrs. Eells realized more and more that she was 
getting far away from home, new thoughts would 
come into her mind. She recorded the following : — 

"I can hardly suppress my feelings when I think 
of the many precious seasons spent at my own happy 
home. I now realize some of the privileges I once 
enjoyed ; but I am happy in the choice I have made 
in relation to spending the remainder of my days 
among the heathen. I love to feel that I am making 
a little sacrifice, if such it may be called, for the 
cause of Christ. If I am the means of brinsjing but 
one soul into the kingdom of Christ, I shall be abun- 
dantly paid for all my privations. . . . 

" Westport, Sabbath, April 22. How unlike the 
Sabbaths at home ! Hold a short season of prayer ; 
go to church. A Methodist missionary among the 
Kansas Indians preached in the morning. Feel it a 
privilege to find a few Christian brethren and an 
unfinished log church here in this part of the country. 
Mr. Eells preached in the afternoon. The truth is 
the same here as in a civilized land. This is probably 



CBOSSING THE CONTINENT, . 43 

tlie last Sabbath this side of the mountains where we 
can have public worship. Am I prepared to live 
without the ordinances of the gospel?" 

As the Fur Company started from that place on that 
day, the missionary party preferred to remain and 
start the next day, Monday. They did not overtake 
the company until the next Saturday night. 

Dr. Chute, a missionary residing there, accompa- 
nied them until May 2. He was a good man, and 
apparently went out of sincere friendship. He was 
of essential service during that first part of the 
journey. When he left them they bought his horse 
to take the place in part of some which were stolen 
during the first week by the Indians. When asked 
how he would get home to Westport, he said : " I can 
dig out a canoe." 

Extracts from Mrs. Eells' diary are as follows : — 

" 26th. I am too tired to help get or eat supper. 

" 27th. Last night we were disturbed by the 
prowliug wolves, and we imagined Indians. To-day 
we have sufficient proof of it. Three of our best 
horses are not to be found." 

They hunted for them a good share of the day but 
could not find them. They afterwards heard from 
them, with some ludians on them. 

On the 28th they overtook the company at the Kan- 
sas River. Says Mrs. Eells : — • 



44 FATHEB EELLS. 

" Almost as soon as our tents were pitched Captain 
Drips and Stevens called on us and had a social 
talk. The former had command of the caravan, and 
the latter was an English gentleman traveling for 
pleasure. We gave them some biscuit and cheese. 
They appeared pleasant, though they said we had 
better travel b}" ourselves, either before or behind 
camp, as they should keep their animals guarded 
nights, and it might not be convenient for our men 
to stand guard. Mr. Gray told them that his men 
expected to stand guard. They seemed to think each 
company had better take care of their own horses. 
This gives us to understand that they do not want us 
to travel with them. However, Mr. Gray did not 
mean to take the hint, as he knew it would not be 
safe for us to travel alone ; and he insisted on a due 
proportion of the guarding being assigned to us. 

' ' Indians are on every side of us. They come 
around our tent to watch us like great dogs. Our dog 
grabbed one who was nearly naked. Mr. Eells called 
him off, whipped him, and then tied him. 

" Will God give me grace, wisdom, knowledge, and 
strength equal to my day ; make me useful in life, 
happy in death and in eternity ? Mr. Eells is so tired 
that he says a bed of stones would feel soft." 

The American Fur Company had its headquarters at 
St. Louis and sent a caravan to the Rockv Mountains 



CBOSSmG THE CONTINENT. 45 

every year to gather the furs obtained by their 
trappers and to buy others from free trappers and 
Indians. This was as far as they were allowed to go, 
the Hudson's Bay Company having complete control 
of the fur trade west of those mountains. To pay 
for these furs, the company carried out goods which 
consisted principally of blankets, garments, whiskey, 
and tobacco. This year they had about two hundred 
horses and mules and seventeen carts, each drawn by 
two mules tandem, except the cart of Captain Drips, 
the commander, which was drawn by three mules. 
Captain Stewart had a six-mule wagon. The mission- 
aries had twenty-two horses and mules, and for a time 
one wagon. This was taken so that for the first part 
of the way the ladies might ride in it at times, and 
rest from horseback riding until thoroughly accus- 
tomed to it. In the whole procession were about 
sixty men. The wagons were all covered with dark 
oilcloth. 

During the night five men were on guard and five 
were on guard during the day. To make it easy, the 
night guard changed three times in the night, which 
gave about two hours and a half to each man, and 
each man was on guard every fourth night and one day 
in every twelve. At night the wagons were arranged 
in a circle into which all the horses and mules were 
brought and picketed. At half-past three they were 



46 FATHEB EELLS. 

let loose to feed outside the circle until six, when they 
were harnessed and packed for traveling. This took 
half or three quarters of an hour. Every man had 
to know and do his own work. Mr. Walker had one 
horse for himself and one for his wife to ride, and one 
to pack. Mr. Rogers had three, one to ride and two 
to pack. Mr. Gray had three, two for riding and one 
for the wagon of which he had charge. Mr. Stevens, 
the packer, had four, one for riding and three for 
packing, and Mr. Eells four, two for riding and two 
for packing. These they were to catch, morning, noon, 
and night. Before starting every man put on his belt, 
powder flask, knife, and the like, and took his gun 
on his horse before him. This done, they rode from 
three to six hours. Once they rode nine hours without 
stopping. The wagons moved first, then the pack 
animals and cattle, the missionaries taking twelve of 
the latter. The ladies rode sometimes behind all and 
sometimes between the wagons and pack animals. 
Messrs. Walker and Smith drove the cattle ; Messrs. 
Stevens, Rogers, and Eells the mules, and Mr. Gray 
the wagon. Mrs. Eells wrote : — 

u y^Q generally stop about two hours at noon, turn 
out the animals, get our dinners and eat ; then Ave 
wash the dishes again, the men catch the animals and 
pack them. We mount our horses and are riding over 
rolling prairies, over high bluffs, through deep ravines 



CBOSSING THE CONTINENT. 47 

and rivers, but through no woods. At night, when 
our animals are unpacked, the gentlemen pitch our 
tents. We spread our buffalo skins first, and then 
a piece of oilcloth for our floor. Then we neatly 
arrange our saddles and other loose baggage around 
the inside of our house. For our chairs we fold our 
blankets and lay them around, leaving a circle in the 
center upon which we spread a tablecloth when we 
eat. In the morning we get up at half-past three, 
turn the animals out to eat ; then we get our breakfast, 
eat, and have worship. After this we wash and pack 
our dishes, our husbands catch the animals, saddle 
the horses, and pack the mules. When we are fairly 
on our way we have much the appearance of a large 
funeral procession. I suppose the company reaches 
half a mile." 

As the horses and mules were gathered, preparatory 
to being driven into the Kansas River to swim across, 
the order came : " Tie up the trail ropes." Mr. Eells 
obeyed. Ignorantly he wound the rope around the 
neck of his wife's riding animal, which was rather 
treacherous. When it landed on the opposite side it 
realized its liberty and refused to be caught. After 
fruitless attempts to catch it, as a last resort applica- 
tion was made to the hunter for help. He proposed 
the plan of " nicking" it, that is, of shooting a rifle 
ball through the upper part of the neck in such a 



48 FATHEit EELL8. 

maiiDer as to stun and drop the animal for a few 
minutes but not to injure it. When the two however 
found the animal, which by that time had gone out of 
sight and quite a distance from the rest, to their sur- 
prise it was quite willing to l)e caught. The rope had 
become so tight around the neck as to tame it. The 
unskillful manner in which it had been wound around 
had turned to good account, and Mr. PLells felt that 
*' the lot was cast into the lap ; but the whole disposing 
thereof is of the Lord " ; for the loss of that animal 
at that time would have been very embarrassing. 

Mr. Gray had estimated that four hundred miles 
would bring them to the buffalo country, and food, 
especially flour, was taken accordingly ; but the buffalo 
were not found as expected and the rations became 
short, so short that when they were found not much 
food was left, only flour enough for gravy. It was 
buffalo, buffalo, buffalo all the time. The sudden 
change to green buffalo meat, morning, noon, and 
night, did not, however, agree with Mr. Eells. It 
soon sickened him. When he was at East Windsor 
planning for the journey, his kind pupils had said ; 
"Now what can we do for you?" He replied: 
" Please make two rich cakes, so rich and nice that I 
can put them in my trunk and carry them across the 
continent and keep them until I shall need them." 
This was done. When he was suffering from so much 



CBOSSING THE CONTINENT, 49 

buffalo meat he would dissolve a little of that cake 
in water aud drink it. This was the only food for 
which he had any relish for a long time. For this he 
was more grateful than words could express, and with 
unwonted emotion he wrote : " God bless those young 
persons who prepared those cakes." 

The party had tin plates for eating purposes, but 
some had small earthen cups for drinking. When 
Mr. Ermatinger, of the Hudson's Bay Company, saw 
these during the latter part of the journey, he said : 
*' Take away your little earthen cups. They gave 
me one of the little things and I swallowed it right 
down with its contents." He wanted a tin cup that 
would hold several times as much as the earthen ones. 

There was a fright or two from Indians ; that ie, 
Indians were discovered, and everybody was required 
to have their rifles ready. Mr. Eells never loaded his, 
though it was loaded once or twice for him by others. 
There were no encounters, however, nor serious 
trouble with them. 

Mrs. Eells' journal says : — 

" May 9. All is hubbub and confusion. Camp 
wants to move early ; horses bad to catch ; dishes 
not packed in season. Oh, how much patience one 
needs to sustain him in this life ! 

" May 12. It rains so hard that notwithstanding 
we have a good fire we cannot dry our clothes at all. 



50 FATHER SELLS. 

Obliged to sleep in our blankets wet as when taken 
from our horses. Our bed and bedding consist of a 
buffalo robe, a piece of oilcloth, our blankets and 
saddles. Our tents are our houses. Our sheets are 
our partitions between us and Mr. Gray. When it 
rains they are spread over the tents. 

'' 13th. Sabbath. Arise this morning, put on our 
clothes wet as when we took them off, and prepare 
for a long ride. I am so strongly reminded of bygone 
days that I cannot refrain from weeping. 

"21st. Have seen dangers on every side of us — 
deep ravines to go through, loose horses taking fright 
so as to put us in danger of our lives if they come 
near us. 

" 24th. Mr. Eells and myself hardly able to sit up, 
but obliged to eat, drink, and work as though we were 
well. Think it is trying. 

" 29th. Husband faint and weak, in consequence of 
not having such food as he can relish. I would gladly 
exchange appetites with him, because he is obliged to 
work so hard. It is true that nothing but the restrain- 
ing grace of God can carry us through. I trust we 
both have this grace. 

"June 2. Kide into Fort William. It is a large 
hewed-log building with an opening in the center and 
partitions for various objects. It compares very well 
with the walls of the Connecticut state prison." 



CBOJSSmG THE CONTINENT, 61 

At the crossing of the North Fork of the Platte it 
was necessary to make boats out of buffalo skins. 
The hunters brought in the skins, and others brought 
willows and made a kind of basket, somewhat like a 
deep boat, and then they were turned up to dry. As 
it was raining ver}'^ hard it took some time for them 
to dry. As there were only two boats it took quite a 
while to put everything over, for all the carts and 
wagons had to be taken to pieces and, with the bag- 
gage, taken across in them, while the animals swam 
over. As the snow was on the surrounding mountains, 
the water w^as very cold. Mr. Eells was not lazy ; he 
did his share in driving the cattle in, and was wet up 
to his waist for a long time. He became so cold that 
he suffered severely, and thought that if he should 
ever feel the genial warmth of the sun again, he would 
be more thankful than he had ever been before. 

It rained so much that the camp was flooded, and 
they were obliged to pile their baggage well up in 
their tents to keep it from injury. Mrs. Walker was 
strong, vigorous, and cheerful, with a pleasant word 
for almost everybody ; but this was too much for her. 
She went into her tent, climbed on top of a pile of 
goods, sat down and began to cry. Mrs. Smith said 
to her: "Why, Mrs. Walker, what is the matter?" 
The reply was : "lam thinking how comfortable my 
father's hogs are ! '* 



52 FATHEE EELLS, 

The journal continues : — 

" 13th. Mrs. Gray and myself hold a short season 
of prayer for ourselves and husbands. 

" 15th. We crossed the Sweetwater. I rode along 
the bank, saw the carts cross, and thought it was 
about three feet deep, though many of the loose 
horses were swimming. I felt a little afraid, and said 
to Mr. Gray, ' We will stop until our husbands have 
taken the mules across and return for us,' as Mr. 
Eells had gone to lead the way for the pack animals, 
and the other gentlemen to drive them. Mr. Gray, 
the last after the mules, said : ' The ladies come 
directly after us.' Mrs. Gray went first and I fol- 
lowed her. My horse mired, entering the river. I 
somehow managed to dismount and wade through the 
water and mud on to the bank again, but saw no one 
coming to my assistance. As soon as I could I went 
back and tried to help my horse out, but he struggled 
so that I could not reach his bridle. Then Mr. Smith 
came to my help. As soon as we were both out I saw 
Mr. Eells and myself covered with mud, and found 
my strength nearly gone. Mr. Eells asked me if I 
was liurt. I said I thought only frightened. By this 
time the company were all over and gone, and we 
must not stop. Mr. Eells had a tin cup fastened to 
his belt, and he rinsed the mud off my cloak, and then 
set me on my horse again and we went safely across. 



CB08SING THE CONTINENT, 53 

We then rode four and a half hours without getting 
off our horses. By this time the upper side of my 
clothes was nearly dry, while the under side was as 
wet as when we came from the river. At noon I 
changed my shoes and stockings, dried my other 
clothes on me as well as I could, and in the afternoon 
rode three and a half hours again. This to me was 
a pretty sorrowful day, though I had great reason to 
be thankful that I was not hurt ; neither did 1 take 
cold. 1 

" 19th. Mr. Eells and myself renewedly conse- 
crate ourselves to the God of missions." 

On the twenty-third of June they arrived at the 
American Rendezvous, and there they remained for 
nearly three weeks. 

" 24th. Sabbath. To-day for the first time since 
we left Westport we have a Sabbath of rest. Mr. 
Walker preached in the forenoon, from 2 Peter 3 : 7. 
Mr. Eells preached in the afternoon from Psalm 
66 : 13. Trust it has been a profitable day to us. 
Hope some good may result from the sermons. Some 
eight or ten men came from the company to attend 
worship." 

The Fourth of July was spent there, but with 
no especial appropriate ceremonies. Captain Drips, 
Walker, and Robbins took dinner with them. But 

1 j;eU8' Indian Missions, p. 36. 



54 FATHER EELL8, 

duriug the night they were troubled exceedingly by 
drunken white men, who came to their tent and wanted 
to settle accounts with Mr. Gray. Mr. Eells talked 
with them as best he could. Mr. Gray stayed inside 
and loaded a gun, and Mrs. Eells and Mrs. Gray, who 
were both in the same tent, made preparations for 
escape. But after a time they went off, and there 
was no further trouble from them. Of the next day 
she says : — 

"Captain Bridger came in about ten o'clock with 
drums and firing, an apology for a scalp dance. 
After they had given Captain Drips' company a 
salute, fifteen or twenty mountain men and Indians 
came to our tent with drumming, firing, and dancing. 
If I might make the comparison, I should think they 
looked like the emissaries of the devil, worshiping their 
own master. They had the scalp of a Blackfoot 
Indian, which they carried for a color, all rejoicing 
in the fate of the Blackfeet in consequence of the 
smallpox. The dog, being frightened, took the trail, 
crossed the river, and howled so that we knew him 
and called him back. When he came he went to each 
tent to see if we were all safe." 

On the following day she again says : — 
" Last night twelve white men came, dressed and 
painted in Indian style, and gave us a dance. No 
pen can describe the horrible scene they presented. 



CBOssma the continent, 55 

I could not imagine that white men, brought up in a 
civilized land, can appear so much to imitate the 
devil." 

The prices of things at that place were given as fol- 
lows : flour, two dollars a pound ; sugar, coffee, and 
tea, a dollar a pint ; calico, worth in the States twenty 
or twenty-five cents, was five dollars ; a shirt, five dol- 
lars ; tobacco, three to five dollars a pound ; whiskey, 
thirty dollars a gallon, and yet on some days nearly 
the whole camp of the trading companies was unfit for 
business because of its use. 

About this time Mrs. Eells wrote : — 

" There is much more danger attending the journey 
than we supposed. Since we left the States we have 
found the horseback riding in imagination and in 
reality two different things. During a considera- 
ble part of our journey we are liable to be met by 
war parties of wild Indians, and if we are not suffi- 
ciently strong, our animals may be taken and we left 
to wander in the wilderness. The first week after 
we left Independence three of our best horses were 
stolen, which cost us two hundred dollars. We often 
speak of the journey as going to sea on land. I be- 
lieve we all agree that no pen can fully paint the real- 
ity of it so that one will understand it who has not 
tried it. We have had very few whole days in camp 
since we left Missouri. I think one day in crossing 



56 FATHEB EELLS. 

the Kansas River, two in crossing the North Fork of 
the Platte, which we did in boats made of skins, and 
two at Fort William, are the only davs we have not 
traveled some distance. Before reaching Rendezvous 
we had to travel eleven hundred miles west of the west- 
ern boundary of Missouri. Camp means any place 
where the company stops. Fort means a place pre- 
pared by the company to stop and recruit animals 
and exchange if necessar3\ Fort William is about 
halfway between the States and Rendezvous. Fort 
Hall is about halfway between Rendezvous and 
Walla Walla. Rendezvous is any place where the 
companies meet to trade with the Indians and with 
each other. It is generally, if not always, in the 
Rocky Mountains. 

"Our Sabbaths have always been the hardest day's 
work. This has led me very much to question the 
duty of going to the heathen in this way. I cannot 
tell how it is consistent for us to break one of God's 
positive commands to obey another. This you see 
we must do to go with the company. To stop would 
not be safe. We have now traveled eleven hundred 
miles and have not seen anything like a house but 
once." 

Washing was done in kettles for tubs, and they 
heated water, w^ashed, boiled, and rinsed the clothes 
in the same kettle. 



CBOSSIITG THE CONTINENT. 57 

The missionary tour came near being stopped at 
this place. It was the intention to come this far with 
the American Fur Company, then at this rendezvous 
to meet the Hudson's Bay Company, who were to 
escort them the rest of the way. But that year the 
Fur Company had become vexed at the Hudson's Bay 
Company, and instead of meeting them as usual, went 
to a new place a hundred and fifty miles north. This 
usual rendezvous was on Green River, a branch of the 
Colorado ; but this year it was on the Popoazua, a 
branch of Wind River. 

In passing east the year before, Mr. Gray had said 
to Mr. F. Ermatinger, of the Hudson's Bay Company, 
that he expected to bring a party out the next year ; 
and as Mr. Gray had favored Mr. Ermatinger, the 
latter intended to meet the party at the old rendezvous. 
But when Mr. Ermatinger arrived no party or trace of 
one was to be found. The American Fur Company 
were about through with trading, and were ready to 
return east in a day or two. It was unsafe for the 
missionaries to proceed alone. They found a party of 
trappers going to California. They must either return 
east or go with this party to California and attempt 
to make their way thence to Oregon. They had about 
half determined on the latter course when Providence 
favored them. Some one who was somewhat friendly 
to the missionaries, either Dr. Robert Newell, an inde- 



58 FATHEB EELLd, 

pendent trapper, or a half breed named Black Harris, 
who had learned of this rendezvous of the American 
Fur Company, had with charcoal written on the old 
storehouse door : " Come to Popoazua on Wind River 
and you will find plenty trade, whiskey, and white 
women." The words " white women," told them 
what was meant, and Mr. Ermatinger went immedi- 
ately there, arriving only four days before the com- 
pany was ready to start on their return to the States. 
With him were Rev. Jason Lee and Mr. P. L. Edwards, 
of the Methodist Mission, who were on their return 
east for reinforcements. They brought the welcome 
intelligence that Dr. Whitman and Mr. Spalding had 
sent fresh horses and provisions to Fort Hall for them. 
*'This," Mrs. Eells wrote, " at first almost overcame 
us. We felt that the God of missions had foreseen 
our wants and seasonably supplied them beyond our 
expectations." 

As to their provisions she wrote at the same time : — 
'* When we leave we expect to find buffalo meat for 
twenty or twenty -five days. After that we shall find 
no game for ourselves. Our meat is to be cut thin, 
dried over a slow fire, and packed for the last part of 
our route. We cannot say we have suffered for food, 
though coarse has been our fare, and sometimes short. 
The change from vegetable to animal food was so great 
that for many days some of our company could not 



CMOS SING THE COX TINE NT. 69 

eat enough to keep them comfortable. Mr. Eells and 
Mr. Walker have suffered the most. We took from 
Independence provisions to last lo the buffalo country 
four weeks. Since that time we have made our meals 
of tea, coffee, and buffalo meat. We have the milk of 
two cows, which, with a little flour, makes us a good 
gravy with our meat. When we left Independence we 
had a hundred and sixty pounds of flour, fifty-seven 
pounds of rice, twenty or twenty-five pounds of sugar, 
a little pepper and salt — but our salt is almost gone, 
and we cannot buy it at any price here. Mr. Gray 
has just been out and bought a pint of tea for three 
dollars. Coffee and sugar are all the same now. 
These we expect to be our luxuries to Fort Hall. 
From there we have supplies from Messrs. Spalding 
and Whitman." 

The twelfth of July they started from this rendez- 
vous with a company of about twenty men. On the 
next day in crossing a ravine, which was deep and 
narrow, so much so that her horse refused to carry 
her, Mrs. Eells got off, the horse jumped through, and 
she climbed through on her hands and knees. On the 
14th they were on the backbone of America ; scenery 
romantic, mountains of red sandstone piled on moun- 
tains on every side, so steep that they could only go up 
and down them sideways. On another day they rode 
an hour and a half on the side of a mountain the angle 



60 FATHER EELLS. 

of which was judged to he forty-five degrees, and no 
path hilt what they made. Had the horses made one 
misstep they must have been precipitated about a hun- 
dred and twenty-five feet. On the nineteenth of July 
the ground was covered with flowers, but snow was all 
around them. 

"July 22, Sabbath. The Indians are about our 
tents before we are up, and stay about all day. Think 
they are the most filthy Indians we have seen. Some 
of them have a buffalo skin around them. Mr. 
Walker read a sermon, and although they could not 
understand a word, they were still and paid good 
attention. They appeared amused with our singing." 

On the 27th the^^ reached Fort Hall, where they 
stayed two days, being received very kindly by Mr. 
McKay, the chief factor. Here through inducements 
held out by the company and statements made by Mr. 
Ermatinger, they left their cattle, American ones, and 
afterward received in exchange Spanish ones at Fort 
Colville. On the ninth of August they passed Salmon 
Falls, and on the 14th arrived at Fort Boise, where 
they feasted on milk, butter, turnips, pumpkins, and 
salmon. Here they stayed two days, Mr. Gray and 
wife leaving the rest of the company and hurrying on 
to Walla Walla. But one night is described here as a 
restless one. "The dogs bark, the wolves prowl, the 
horses take fright and break loose, some of the men 



CROSSING THE CONTINENT, 61 

about the fort have a spree, the winds blow our tent 
over, and the Indians are about watching for an oppor- 
tunity to take what they can get." On the 23d three 
of tlieir horses were stolen by the Indians. Two days 
afterward as they came into the Grand Ronde Valley, 
Mrs. Conner, an Indian woman, was taken sick. Mr. 
Conner, Mr. Smith and wife stayed with her, and they 
did not get into camp that night. The next da}' being 
the Sabbath, the main party rested, and about ten 
o'clock the others arrived, Mrs. Conner briuo-ing an 
infant daughter. She had ridden about fifteen miles 
that day and twenty-five the day previous. 

On the 27th Mr. Rogers was thrown from his horse 
and hurt badly. He tried to go on, but could not, and 
was bled. Accordingly Mr. and Mrs. Smith and Mr. 
and Mrs. Conner stayed with him, while the others 
moved on. The next night while on the Blue Moun- 
tains they were cheered by meeting a white man who 
had been sent by Dr. Whitman with fresh saddle 
horses. 

"Wednesday, August 29, the journal has the follow- 
ing entry : — 

"Rode seven hours, thirty miles; arrived at Dr. 
Whitman's. Met Mr. Spalding and wife, with Dr. 
Whitman and wife, anxiously awaiting our arrival. 
They all appear friendly and treat us with great hospi- 
tality. Dr. Whitman's house is on the Walla Walla 



62 FATHEB EELLS. 

River, twenty-five miles east of Fort Walla Walla 
[now Wallula]. It is built of adobe, mud dried in 
the form of brick, only larger. I cannot describe its 
appearance, as I cannot compare it with anything I 
ever saw. There are doors and windows, but they are 
of the roughest material, the boards being sawed by 
hand and put together by no carpenter, but by one 
who knows nothing about the work. There are a 
number of wheat, corn, and potato fields about the 
house, besides a garden of melons and all kinds of 
vegetables common to a garden. There are no fences, 
there being no timber of which to make them. The 
furniture is ver}' primitive ; the bedsteads are boards 
nailed to the side of the house, sink-fashion ; then 
some blankets and husks make the bed ; but it is good 
compared with traveling accommodations." 

The next day Messrs. Smith, Rogers, and Conner 
arrived, and the day following they settled with their 
hired help. 

The long journey of one hundred and twenty-nine 
days from the Missouri River, and one hundred and 
seventy-seven from the starting place in Massachusetts, 
was ended, and the distance between the Missouri 
and Walla Walla had been traveled a second time by 
women. 



CHAPTER III. 



OREGON IN 1838. 



THE Oregon of 1838 was very different from the 
Oregon of 1893, when Dr. Eells died. Not 
alone Oregon, but Washington, Idaho, and a small part 
of Montana and of Wyoming were then called Oregon. 
It had not been decided, however, that it belonged to 
the United States. The treaty between Great Britain 
and the United States which settled that controversy 
was not signed until Dr. Eells had been in the country 
eight years. Even the provisional government for 
Oregon formed by the Americans for their own pro- 
tection, independent of the United States until one 
government or the other should assume control, was not 
formed until 1843. Indeed, in 1838 there were not 
enough Americans in the whole country even to wish 
to form such a government. Previous to the arrival 
of this missionary reinforcement of 1838 there were, as 
nearly as can now be ascertained, only fifty-one Ameri- 
cans in Oregon, thirty of whom were connected .with 
the Methodist Missionary Society and the American 
Board, and hence expected to govern themselves, leav- 
ing only twenty-one who needed further government. 



64 FATHER EELLS, 

In fact the Hudson's Bay Company ruled the country. 
It of course governed its own employes, but it also 
did much more. It located the missionaries, placing 
the Methodists in the Willamette valley, although 
they had planned to settle east of the Cascades, 
because the company thought that region too far inland 
for easily protecting them. It located the mission- 
aries of the American Board, who had expected to 
work west of the Cascades, east of those mountains, 
because the Methodists were there when they ar- 
rived. The company had about the only goods in the 
country. Everybody was dependent on it for sup- 
port. It managed the Indians, and generally quite 
well, as it was for its interest so to do. Although by 
treaty between the United States and Great Britain 
Americans had as many rights in the country as 
Englishmen, yet the company drove out every 
American trading company, at least eleven of which 
attempted to enter the region previous to 1838. This 
it was its interest to do. The company told the 
missionaries what articles they might trade to the 
Indians and fixed a price for each. When it said, 
" Do not touch beaver skins," the missionaries obeyed. 
If they did not obey, they must perish or leave the 
country. From about 1821, when the company estab- 
lished itself in the country, until, after 1838 it was 
" monarch of all it surveyed." The factors were, 



OEEGON IN 1838. 65 

however, kind to the missionaries, and assisted them 
in all reasonable ways, as long as they attended to 
their proper business. 

At that time in Oregon, which in 1892 contained 
about 900,000 inhabitants, ^ there were only thirteen 
settlements : the mission stations of Dr. Whitman at 
Waiilatpu in the Walla Walla valley, of Mr. Spalding 
at Lapwai among the Nez Perces, of the Methodists 
at The Dalles and near Salem ; and the Hudson's Bay 
Company's forts at Walla Walla (now Wallula), 
Colville, Hall, Boise, Vancouver, Nisqually, Umpqua, 
and Okanogan, and the settlement at Astoria. 

Neither California, Nevada, Utah, New Mexico, 
Arizona, Texas, nor Alaska belonged to the United 
States, all the people over whom our country had 
direct control in the legion now covered by all these 
states and territories being comprised in the above- 
mentioned fifty-one Americans. This was even then 
so much of a foreign country that it was necessary for 
the missionaries to procure passports from the secre- 
tarv of war. ^ 



Un 1S90 Washington had a population of 349,390; Oregon, 313,767; 
Idaho, 84,38"); five counties in southwestern Montana, and one in north- 
eastern Wyoming, which were in the Oregon of 1858, 65,862; total, 
813,404. In 1^9•2 the population of Washington had increased to 395,589. 
It has been impossible for the writer to obtain the figures in regard to the 
rest of the region above specified for 18'.)2, but if it increased as rapidly 
as Washington, the total population would have been 932,469. 

2 The following is a copy of the passport of Mr. Eells, which waa 
given in duplicate:— 



66 FATHEB EELLS, 

At that time, in fact, the whole United States con- 
tained less than seventeen million people, only about 
one quarter of what it did at the time of Dr. Eells' 
death. The cities too had changed as much or more. 
Pittsburg, with its quarter of a million, had only twenty 
thousand people when his party gave up the privilege 
of spending a part of the Sabbath in it, that they 
might " remember the day to keep it holy." Cincin- 
nati, where he saw his first pack saddle, has increased 
during those years from about forty thousand to three 
hundred thousand. The St. Louis of to-day, with 
nearly a half a million, was then a border town of 
about fifteen thousand. Chicago, now the second 
city in the United States, with its million and a half 
of inhabitants, had not previous to 1838 been of sufiB- 
cient size to have a United States census taken of it, 
and had only 4,470 people two years later. New 
York, with her more than a million and a half, had 
only about two hundred and ninety thousand when 



The Rev. Gushing Eells, Missionary and Teacher of the American 
Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions to the tribes west of the 
Rocky Mountains, liaving signified to this Department his desire to 
pass through the Indian country to the Columbia River, and requested 
the permission required by law to enable him so to do, such permission 
is hereby grante<l; and he is commended to the friendly attentions of 
Civil and Military Agents and Officers, and of Citizens, and, if at anj 
time it shall be necessary, to their protection. 

I ^— '— ) Given under my hand and the seal of the War Department 
J SEAL j this 27th day of February, 1838. 
( "-^^^ ) J. R. POINSETT, 

Secretary of War. 



OBEGOX IN 1838. 67 

the missionary band of 1838 received their instruc- 
tions there. 

West of the Mississippi River were then only three 
states, Louisiana, Arkansas, and Missouri, and these 
with Iowa, which, however, was not even an organized 
territory when Mr. Eells left Massachusetts, had, two 
years later, only a population of 876,799. There were 
in 1838 less people west of the Mississippi than there 
were in 1893 in what was formerh^ Oregon. 

The railroad engine had not been west of the Alle- 
ghenies, and only thirteen years anywhere in the 
United States, and the telegraph was not fairly born 
until six years after Mr. Eells arrived in Oregon. 

Oregon itself was held by learned men in Congress 
to be the mere offscouring of creation — a Botany Bay 
for rogues and scoundrels if ever the United States 
should need such a place, while the idea of a railroad 
across the continent was ridiculed in Congress like the 
lamp of Aladdin. 

Wagons did not reach the Columbia River until 
1840. The wagon road was not opened until 
1843. While there were probably a few home- 
made carts about the Hudson's Bay Company's forts, 
yet the pack saddle occupied the place of the 
freight car, the mule and cayuse pony that of the 
steam engine, and the canoe and batteau that of the 
steamer. 



68 FATHEB EELLS. 

The houses were log cabins, or of adobe — sun- 
burnt brick. That of Mr. Eells at Tshimakain had at 
first only earth for a floor and pine boughs for a 
roof. As that did not protect from rain, some earth 
was thrown upon the boughs. Still the rain came 
through, so a bearskin was put over the bed to keep 
the occupants dry, while the boughs were laid upon 
the earth beneath, and when they became too dry were 
exchanged for new ones. This was for years the 
carpet for the mission mansion. 

A cooking stove was unknown at Tshimakain during 
the whole ten years of the mission. Window glass 
was at first as scarce. Cotton cloth was used as a 
substitute, next undressed deerskin, oiled. After a 
while a few panes of glass were sent from Massachu- 
setts, and still later a small box of glass was obtained. 

They had one chair during the ten years. For a 
table three boards, each three feet long, were packed 
a hundred and fifty miles, and a center table made by 
driving four stakes into the ground and placing the 
boards on them. Timber split and hewn was used for 
other articles. 

Hotels indeed were numerous everywhere a person 
wished to camp. They were larger than the Tacoma 
Hotel and Hotel Portland, though not as expensive per 
day; they were as large as all outdoors. About 1839 
Mr. Eells said : "I am pleased with the taverns of 



OitEGOX IX 1838. 69 

Oregon." Really he enjoyed them as long as he lived. 
Camping out was ever attractive to him. 

The reason why they did not use lumber was that 
there was almost none. The country bounded by 
California, the Rocky Mountains, British Columbia, 
and the Pacific Ocean, which now produces over two 
billion feet of lumber annually, ^ had, possibly, one 
sawmill ; if so, it was at Fort Vancouver, about four 
hundred miles from Mr. Eells' station, too far to 
transport lumber by the railroads and steamers of 
that day. All their lumber was sawed by hand with a 
pit saw. 

The flour mills were somewhat more numerous. 
There was one at Vancouver and one at Colville. 
Flour brought to Dr. Whitman's was twenty-four 
dollars a barrel. When, however, Mr. Eells located 
among the Spokanes, he was conveniently near the one 
at Colville, for it was only seventy miles distant, and 
they could go and return in five days. The soil was 
plowed with a homemade plow, the singletrees had 
rawhide instead of iron, and the wheat was cut for 
nine years with old-fashioned sickles. 

At Dr. Whitman's at first a small baking of bread 
was indulged in once a week. It was generally gone 



1 The editor of The Puget Sound Lumberman gives the product of lum- 
ber for 1892 as follows : Wa^ihington, 1,1(54,4-25,880 feet; Oregon, 608,600,- 
200; Idaho, 200,000,000; live counties in souihwestern Idaho, 250,000,000. 



70 FATHER EELLS. 

by the third clay, and then wheat and corn cooked 
whole were used the rest of the time. Such were tlie 
conditions in the great agricultural region which a year 
before Dr. Eells' death produced over twenty-nine 
million bushels of wheat. ^ 

The flour sacks were of buckskin, for it was cheaper 
than cloth, as well as more enduring. One has been 
kept by the pioneer missionary. By its side is a valise 
of the same material, though no stranger w^ould recog- 
nize it as such. The overalls and pantaloons com- 
bined were made of the same material, with a leather 
apron for packing, and sinew was a common thread. 

The beef neither chewed the cud nor parted the 
hoof. It was made out of the Indian pony. Cattle 
were very scarce. The Hudson's Bay Company owned 
all in the country, except what the missionaries had 
brought. Neither love nor money could procure one 
from the company. About half a dozen horses were 
killed for beef at Dr. Whitman's during the winter of 
1838-39, and for several years Mr. Eells was accus- 
tomed to salt one down every winter. They were 
fattened on the rich bunch grass and with few excep- 
tions were eaten with a relish, even by the fastidious. 

Mrs. Eells once wrote: "I had the luxury of eating 



1 The wheat product, from the best statistics I have been able to ob- 
tain, is: Oregon (1892), 15,000,000; Washington ("1891), 1-2,216,000; Idaho 
(1891), 1,811,000 bushels. 



OBEGON IN 1838. 71 

a piece of the first cow that was driven into the coun- 
try." In 1818 a pair of calves were taken by boat 
from Vancouver to Fort Walla Walla (Wallula) . In 
1838 one of them was the ancestor of all kine between 
the Cascade and Blue Mountains. She was twenty 
years old, with not a tooth in her head, and about use- 
less to keep alive. But though toothless she had been 
so fattened that she was believed to be good beef. 
She was killed and a liberal portion sent to Dr. Whit- 
man, the first winter after Mr. Eells arrived, and she 
was the best beef ever eaten in the Walla Walla 
valley. Before Dr. Eells died this whole region pro- 
duced nearly eight hundred tliousand cattle, and was 
exporting beef to all parts of the United States. i 

Matches were made of stone, iron, and rotten wood, 
— flint, with sometimes the striking part of iron, 
and punk, — with occasionally a homemade affair of 
sulphur. 

The post offices were as scarce as the mails were 
infrequent. Usually the latter came twice a year, in 
the Hudson's Bay Company's vessels, by way of Cape 
Horn and the Sandwich Islands to Vancouver, which 
was the distributing office. Mail for the missions 
east of the Cascades was taken up the Columbia 
to Fort Walla Walla. On learning of its arrival 

Un 1892 Oregon had 388,619 cattle; Washington, 224,723; Idaho, 
177,825. 



72 FATHER EELL8. 

Mr. Eells would start with pack animals and a helper, 
go to the post office two hundred miles distant, and 
return in two weeks. The newest papers were six 
months and sometimes twelve months old. 

In January, 1844, Mrs. Eells wrote to her sister in 
Massachusetts: " Your letter dated September, 1841, 
I received July, 1843, a long time sure enough, but, as 
the Indians say, ' I am thankful to get a letter of any 
date.'" In April, 1847, she wrote to the same sister: 
*'I have just been reading your sisterly letter of 
December, 1844, and although it was written more 
than two years ago, yet since it is the last I have 
heard from you, it is like reviving conversation and 
talking of past events. You said that it had been two 
years a short time previous since you had heard from 
us." In October, 1847, she wrote about a letter re- 
ceived the previous Jul}^ : "I am sorry to delay 
answering so good a letter so long, but have not known 
of an opportunity to send letters to the United States." 
Even as late as November, 1850, she wrote from 
Forest Grove to a friend in Africa : "If I remember 
right, your letter of 1848 was received last June." 

Information as to the treaty between Great Britain 
and the United States, made June 15, 1846, was 
received at Fort Vancouver about November 3 of the 
same year, via the Sandwich Islands, four months and 
a half, and later was sent east of the Cascades. This 



OBEGON m 1838. 73 

was telegraphic communication of the most important 
kind. 

For the missionaries at Tshimakain Fort Colville 
was occasionally a way station or letter box. Dr. 
Eells gives the following account of one trip to that 
place to deposit mail : — 

'' With our limited facilities the annual autumnal 
passage of the brigade of the Hudson's Bay Company 
from east of the mountains down the Columbia was an 
important event. Its arrival at Fort Colville was to 
be prepared for. Thus an opportunity was afforded 
for the conveyance of letters to Vancouver, and 
thence via the Sandwich Islands to Boston. I had 
written and had arranged with an Indian to accompany 
and assist me in conveying the mails, and in convey- 
ing supplies from the fort. In vain I looked for the 
arrival, according to promise, of the needed helper. 
The morning hours passed. According to our meas- 
urement 11 A.M. was nearing. The idea of not for- 
warding what I had prepared was unendurable. On a 
riding horse, with pack mule carrying tent, bedding, 
food, I started. The moon was at its full. After a 
ride of forty miles I camped. Seasonably the next 
morning I vras traveling. The distance, thirty miles 
to the post, was passed. The boats had not arrived. 
My mail was left and I returned twenty miles. 

"The fifty miles for the next day should be cona- 



74 FATHER EELLS. 

menced early, as the last fifteen miles were darkened 
with timber. The moon would not rise till more than 
two hours after sunset, and it was cloudy. With such 
facts in mind I encamped. I slept, I awoke ; my first 
thought was, It is daylight. The moon was concealed 
behind the clouds. Hurriedly I struck tent, saddled, 
packed, and was off. After riding an indefinite 
length of time the location of the moon was discernible. 
Judging thus, it was not far from midnight. After 
a nocturnal ride of ten miles I lay down again and slept 
without fear of being benighted in dark timber. The 
distance traveled was one hundred and forty miles ; 
length of time, a little in excess of two days and a half, 
with object obtained and mail taken to post office."^ 

The goods were largely in England. At the forts 
were supplies used in the Indian trade, but not for 
civilized families ; consequently their bills for a year's 
supply had to be made out a year beforehand, for- 
warded through the Hudson's Bay Company to London, 
and then brought back. 

These were paid for by drafts on Boston. Thie cur- 
rency of the country was beaver, with tobacco and 
clothes for change. Money was almost unknown. 
In ten years Mr. Eells used two and a half dollars in 
cash. A gold piece of this amount he gave to Dr. 
Whitman for filling a tooth. 
1 Walla Walla Watchman, March 27, 1885, 



OBEGON IX 1838, 75 

Mrs. Eells' impressions of the country are given in 
a letter written from Dr. Whitman's station, October 
4, 1838. She says : — 

"We had a long, hard horseback journey, but sup- 
pose that we are the better qualified to live in this 
country, as there is no other mode of conveyance 
here. Instead of flnding everything necessary for a 
livelihood, we find we are dependent on the mission 
for everything at present. 

" The country is large and there are comparatively 
few inhabitants in it. The Hudson's Bay Company has 
a number of trading posts which are generally about 
three hundred miles apart. Mr. Spalding and Dr. 
Whitman have each a station about a hundred and 
twenty-five miles apart. The Methodists have two 
stations — one a hundred and fifty miles and the 
other four hundred miles from here. Besides these 
settlements there are no others in this great territory. 
Of course the people of each settlement must raise 
their own provisions, make their own furniture, farm- 
ing utensils, houses, and barns. There are a few 
cattle at each missionary station, a large number at 
Vancouver, and some at most of the other forts. 
Everything of cloth is brought from some foreign 
port. There is nothing yet to make cloth of, and if 
there were, there is no way to manufacture it. Had I 
known there was not a [spinning] wheel in this whole 



76 FATHEB EELLS, 

country I should have been exceedingly anxious to 
have had one sent with my other things. There are 
very few sheep here, and more have been sent for 
from California. Dr. Whitman has raised a little 
flax, though not much, for want of seed. 

" Had it not been for the bedding, books, clothing, 
etc., that were kindly furnished me at home, I must 
have been in great want. The Hudson's Bay Com- 
pany has furnished Mr. Spalding and Dr. Whitman 
with many of the necessaries of life, which the agents 
consider as a great favor, for they only bring what 
they want for their own use and to trade with the 
Indians. There never having been any white women 
here before the missionaries, there has been no call 
for anything but Indian articles of trade. The men 
wear striped cotton or calico shirts, sleep in Indian 
blankets and buffalo skins, and of course have had no 
need for white cotton cloth, and have none. The 
Indians wear moccasins, so there has been no want of 
shoes except for their own use. What things they have 
that are not in present use are kept at Vancouver, 
and there is generally a full supply for this country. 

" Mrs. Whitman and Mrs. Spalding have obtained 
some earthen dishes, but think it is doubtful whether 
we can have any others until we order them from Eng- 
land or the States. Perhaps you will wonder what we 
shall eat with. We have the dishes we used on the 



OREGON IN 1838. 77 

way, which we have divided so that we shall each 
have a tin dish and a spoon, each a knife, fork, and 
plate. I expect we can get tinware at Vancouver. I 
believe there is a tinner there. We must be contented 
with what books we have until ours come [around 
Cape Horn]. Dr. Whitman has gone to Vancouver 
to get what he can for us and make arrangements for 
them to send our things to us when they shall come. 
We do not expect them before another season. 

" The Indians are numerous, but they live a wan- 
dering life. They live upon game, fish, and roots, 
which are found in many different places. They have 
no houses, but live in lodges made of sticks set in a 
circle in the ground and drawn together at the top 
and fastened with a string, leaving a place at the top 
for the smoke to pass out. Over this frame they 
throw skins, grass, willows, and the like, which make 
their covering. They build their fire upon the ground, 
in the center, around which they sit and sleep. They 
generally have one kettle in which they boil their fish, 
meat, corn, and potatoes, if they have any. None of 
them have corn and potatoes except what they get 
from some of the above-named settlements. Not 
many of them have any dishes, knives or forks or 
spoons of any kind. They eat standing, with the 
kettle in the middle, their hands supplying the place 
of all dishes. They will often perform a long journey 



78 FATHER EELLS. 

for a knife or a blanket. They dress in skins. Some 
of them get blankets for their services to the whites, 
which they value highly. They have no written lan- 
guage, and I believe no two tribes speak the same 
language, though there is some similarity. 

" It is not known that they worship idols, though it 
is supposed that they worship something. Formerly 
when one died, owning horses, some of the relatives 
killed them, saying he would want them in another 
world. When they are sick they have a kind of jug- 
glery. I have just been to see one of their perform- 
ances. The woman who was sick was standing about 
half bent, beating upon a bit of board with a stick, 
giving herself the hardest of exercise, all the while 
sighing and sobbing as if her heart were broken, and 
sweating profusely. Five or six old women were sit- 
ting around her, keeping perfect time with all her 
gestures by drumming upon something with a stone. 
When the sick one is too feeble to perform, or too 
young, some one performs for her. We tried to tell 
them it was bad, and she left off and lay down while 
we were there, but as soon as we were away they were 
drumming again. 

" They say they are glad we have come to teach 
them; that their mind is dark, that they know but 
little, and that their children will know more. There 
are a great many children, though very many die quite 



OBEGON IN 1838. 79 

young. It is thought they are decreasing, notwith- 
standing some of them have a large number of wives. 
The more wives they have the richer they are. The 
women perform all the drudgery and do all the work. 
They are a very imitative people ; what they see us do 
they try to do. They are very strict in their morning 
and evening devotions and the observance of the 
Sabbath and the like. They do it because they have 
seen us do it, and not from any sense of duty. 

'' They have learned of Mr. Spalding and Dr. 
Whitman some Scripture history and some hymns, 
which they sing. They have not yet had much time to 
teach them, being obliged to do most of their own 
work. It is true the Indians help them some, but 
they cannot be depended upon. They are here to-day 
and to-morrow they are somewhere else. Besides, if 
they think you are depending on them, they will not 
work, unless they are driven to it by hunger. Some 
of them are beginning to sow little patches of corn, 
wheat, and potatoes for themselves. This the men 
have done and are proud of it ; but if a man works 
for us, they call him a slave and a fool. Three or 
four have given evidence of a change of heart. 

" We feel that we are a small band of missionaries 
in a heathen land, far removed from the luxuries and 
many of the comforts of life, and we feel more keenly 
the absence of civilized and Christian society ; but we 



80 FATHER EELL8. 

trust we Lave been sent here on errands of mercy, 
that we are and shall be sustained in every trial by 
the same Almight}' arm as in a Christian land. It 
is true that the field is large and but few laborers are 
in it, yet we pray that we may do, and do cheerfully, 
what we have to do to bring the heathen to Christ, 
knowing that our reward will be great if we are 
faithful. 

" I do not regret that I have come to labor for the 
Indians. I only regret that I am not better qualified 
for my work. I feel that I have come from a land of 
plenty to a destitute heathen people. I often fear 
that I shall lack that wisdom which is profitable to 
direct. I am sure no one ought to come here until he 
has counted well the cost." 

As to the number of Indians at that time in Oregon 
there is very little reliable data. Rev. S. Parker, in 
1835 and 1836, traveled over a considerable part of 
the country and obtained all the information he could 
on this subject from the Indians and the Hudson's 
Bay Company. His estimate was about 100,000, 
nearly equally divided by the Cascade Mountains : 
8,780 were in the Willamette Valley, 17,000 between 
it and California, and about 25,000 north of the 
Columbia and west of the Cascades. He estimates 
10,000 Snakes, 2,500 Nez Perces, 2,000 Cayuses, 500 
Walla Wallas, 300 Palouses, 800 each of the Spo- 



OBEGON IN 1838. 81 

kanes and Flatheads, 700 Coenr d'Alenes, 2,200 Pen 
d'Oreilles, 1,000 Kootenays, the same number of 
Okanogans, 500 Colvilles, and 700 Yakimas. 

Some of these estimates were evidently very near 
the truth, especially those where there had been a 
good opportunity for observation. Others were prob- 
ably too large. 

But they have dwindled away. Intemperance, 
licentiousness, smallpox, measles, and kindred vices 
and diseases have cut them off with great rapidity. 
The report of the Commissioners of Indian Affairs 
for 1892 gives the number in the region covered by 
Mr. Parker's estimate as 21,057. 



CHAPTER IV. 

THE MISSION ESTABLISHED. 

1838-48. 

THE main party arrived at Dr. Whitman's August 
29, 1838, and the rest the next day. On Fri- 
day they settled with their help, talked about the 
mission outlook, and held a service of prayer for 
guidance. On Saturday the whole mission began 
business, and in their business meeting assigned Mr. 
Smith to Dr. Whitman's station, Messrs. Gray and 
Rogers to Mr. Spalding's, and voted to establish 
one new station in the Flathead country to be occu- 
pied by Messrs. Walker and Eells. The new arrivals 
also joined the temperance society. 

On the Sabbath they had one service in English, 
one in Indian, and observed the Lord's Supper. The 
new missionaries united with the mission church, then 
composed of seven members, making sixteen in all. 
This church, according to Dr. Whitman, was Presby- 
terian in name but Congregational in practice, being 
connected with no presbytery. Mr. Spalding was 
pastor and Dr. Whitman ruling elder. 

Mr. Smith, after wintering at Dr. Whitman's, opened 

82 



THE MISSION ESTABLISHED. 83 

a new station the next spring among the Nez Perces 
at Kamiah. There he remained until 1841, when 
chiefly on account of the alarming condition of Mrs. 
Smith's health, his own being also impaired, and 
partly also because he did not altogether agree with 
some of the brethren in regard to tlie management of 
the mission, he resigned and went to the Sandwich 
Islands. There he labored as a missionary until 
1845, when his health failed and he returned to the 
United States. ^ 

Mr. C. Rogers taught school at Mr. Spalding's 
the next winter, and spent considerable time at that 
place and Dr. Whitman's until 1841, journeying with 
the Indians to Fort Hall in 1839 and to the Wil- 
lamette and Puget Sound in 1840. In 1841 he too 
became somewhat dissatisfied, and resigned, going to 
the Willamette valley. He was an excellent linguist.^ 

Mr. Gray spent the winter of 1838-39 at Mr. 
Spalding's, and after that explored, and lived at Mr. 
Spalding's and finally at Dr. Whitman's until 1842, 
when he resigned for the same reason that caused 

iThe rest of his life until 18S3 was spent in Massachusetts and 
Connecticut, when he went to Sherwood, Tenn., where he organized a 
Congregational church, of wiiich he was pastor until his deatii there, 
February 10, 18-6, in the seventy-sixth year of his age. Mrs. Smith 
died of consumption at Buckland, Mass., in May, 18".5, aged forty -one. 

2 He married Miss Satira, eldest daughter of Kev. D. Leslie, of the 
Methodist Mission, and very soon after, with her and four others, was, 
in February, 1843, accidentally carried over the Willamette Falls at 
Oregon City and drowned. 



84 FATHER EELLS. 

Mr. Rogers to do so, and moved to the Willamette 
valley. 1 

Mr. Spalding remained at his post until after the 
Whitman massacre in 1847. Then he went to the 
Willamette, and remained chiefly in the Halapooya 
region until 1859. After that he returned east of 
the Cascade Mountains, towards his former field, and 
was among the Nez Perces or in their neighborhood 
(the government excluded him from the reservation 
a large share of the time) until his death, August 
3, 1874, at the age of nearly seventy-one. During 
the last few years of his life he gathered much fruit 
among the Nez Perces from his early seed sowing. 
Mrs. Spalding died January 7, 1851, her death 
having been hastened through the troubles incident 
to the Whitman massacre. 

Mr. Walker stayed in his mission field until 1848, 
when the danger from the hostile Cayuses drove him 
and Mr. Eells from their field. He first went to 
Oregon City, but the next year moved to Forest 
Grove, where he died November 21, 1877, aged 
seventy-two. His life was spent in ministerial work. 



1 In 1846 ne moved to Clatsop, then to Astoria, and after that to British 
Columbia, then to Okanogan, and again to Astoria. He died at Port- 
land, November 4, 1SS9, aged seventy-nine. He was the author of a 
History of Oregon. He was also a considerable part of his life 
engaged in steamboating and left four sons who have Ijeen steamboat 
captains. Mrs. Gray died at Clatsop, December 8, 1881, aged seventy- 
one. 



THE MISSION ESTABLISHED. 85 

Of all that missionary band Mrs. Walker alone sur- 
vives. Five of the eight children have been engaged 
in work among the Indians, and another is a mis- 
sionary to China. 

Dr. and Mrs. Whitman fell at their post by the 
hands of the Cayuses November 29, 1847, he at the 
age of forty-five and she thirty-nine. 

Messrs. Walker and Eells, having been appointed 
to begin a new station among the Spokane Indians, 
started north September 10, 1838, to locate that 
station. They spent the first Sabbath among the 
Spokane Indians at Chewelah (always pronounced 
by the Indians cha-icelah). Thence they pushed on 
to Fort Colville, forty miles further north, to consult 
with Mr. Archibald McDonald, chief factor in charge, 
as to the best location. As they rode over a hill, in 
fair sight of fort and valley, they saw a sight which 
could not be duplicated east of the Cascade Moun- 
tains. It was the most important farming establish- 
ment of the Hudson's Bay Company in all the upper 
country. 1 It produced annually about four thousand 
bushels of wheat, besides considerable corn and vege- 
tables. There was also a large herd of cattle, then 
invaluable. The buildings, domestic animals, planta- 



^In those days " upper country" Avas a common term and meant all 
the region east of the Cascades and drained by the waters of the 
Upper Columbia, while " lower country " meant the Willamette valley. 



86 FATHEB EELL8. 

tion, and farming operations were very attractive, and 
caused Mr. Walker to remark : " A city under a hill." 

They were received very kindly. Mr. McDonald 
was an intelligent Scotchman, and exceedingly kind to 
the missionaries as long as he remained in charge, 
which was for several years. His wife was a native 
of the country, but, according to Mr. Eells, was a 
jewel of rare excellence, intelligent, and her numer- 
ous children were a living testimony to her maternal 
efficiency. 

For three or four nights Messrs. Walker and Eells 
remained there and discussed matters of importance. 
Mr. McDonald recommended as their station a place 
called Tshimakain, now Walker's Prairie, six miles 
north of the Spokane River, on the road between 
Colville and Walla Walla. He however suggested as 
worthy of consideration a place on the Pen d'Oreille 
Lake, and advised them to look at it before deciding. 
They did so. Going there first, they next visited 
Tshimakain, " the plain of springs." They decided 
on the latter place, as it was the home of the chief. 
They remained there some time to do what they could 
in preparing a home. Having nothing but a hatchet 
they sent to Colville for two Canadian axes, and with 
these and Indian help they cut logs about twelve 
inches in diameter and fourteen feet long, and built 
two log pens about twenty feet apart for their future 



THE MISSION ESTABLISHED. 87 

homes. As winter was approaching they did not stay 
to cover them, but returned to Walla Walla by way of 
Lapwai, having been absent about six weeks. 

At Dr. Whitman's during that winter was a com- 
munity of fifteen persons : Dr. Whitman and wife, 
and daughter Alice ; Messrs. Smith, Walker, Eells, 
and their wives, Margaret McKay, and five natives of 
the Sandwich Islands, then in the employ of Dr. 
Whitman, Joseph and his wife Maria, Jack, Mungo, 
and Havia. The first two were members of the Sand- 
wich Island church. There, too, December 7, 1838, 
Cyrus Hamlin Walker was added to their number, 
believed to be the first American white boy born in 
Oregon, as it then was. During that winter at Dr. 
Whitman's considerable time was spent in studying the 
Flathead language, which the Spokane Indians used, 
under the noted Nez Perce chief. Lawyer, who was 
acquainted with it as well as with Nez Perce. 

In the autumn of 1838, when Messrs. Walker and 
Eells left Tshhnakain, they made arrangements with 
some Spokane Indians to come to Dr. Whitman's 
early the next spring to assist them in moving. Late 
in February came the chief with four men and four 
women. On March 5, exactly one year after each 
couple had been married, they started again to finish 
their bridal tour. In the journey they went up the 
west side of the Palouse River, where the scenery is 



88 FATHER EELL8, 

grand, almost frightful. Ou the right was the stream 
generally flowing rapidly but at one place falling about 
a hundred and sixty feet, and at another, about 
twelve miles from its mouth, where the trail leaves the 
river, dropping ten or twelve feet. On their left the 
basaltic bluffs towered hundreds of feet almost perpen- 
dicularly, while ou the other side sometimes the bluff 
below was as far between them and the river, and 
sometimes the river was at their feet. In passing this 
region they were detained one day by snow and 
another because of a kick which Mr. Walker received. 
On the 20th they were at Tshimakain. They pitched 
their tents expecting to remain, but as they were 
nearly out of provisions they sent to Fort Colville for 
more. With the food an urgent invitation also came 
from Mr. McDonald requesting the ladies and baby to 
partake of the hospitalities of the fort until the men 
should make the buildings more comfortable. They 
did so, and it was not until the last of April that they 
returned and began housekeeping, and were ready to 
receive bridal calls, nearly fourteen months after 
marriage. These houses have been described in the 
previous chapter. 

It was also necessary for gardens to be made. The 
roughest kind of a homemade plow was used with 
a harness as rough, but still something was done. 
Yet of all that they planted their wheat and potatoes 



THE MISSION ESTABLISHED. 89 

alone ripened, their corn having been frost killed on 
August 18. Only about once in three years could 
they raise corn and tender vegetables, some years 
there having been frost every month. 

It was also necessary to learn the language. They 
had studied it some at Dr. Whitman's, but their knowl- 
edge was very imperfect. Two words they found 
exceedingly useful : Stem skwest (What name) ? This 
language they had also to reduce to writing. They 
did so, following Pickering's rules. 

The Spokane language is harsh and guttural. One 
person on hearing it said: "It makes me think of 
persons husking corn." In this respect it is very 
unlike the adjoining Nez Perce, which is soft and 
musical. It is also unlike the Nez Perce in its use of 
prepositions, the former having many and the latter 
almost none, their places being supplied by the 
inflections of the verb. 

A few nouns form their plurnl by reduplication, and 
some are irregular. For example, the word for man, 
skul-tu-mi-ha, becomes in the plural skul-skul-tu-mi-lm ; 
hand, kal-lish, is kil-kal-lish ; and mountain, ets-im- 
mo-ko, is ets-im mo-ko-mo-ko ; but woman, sem-ain^ is 
pal-i)il-kivi in the plural ; and tree, sa-at-kl^ is sil-a-sil. 
The plural for Indian, skai-lu^ is the same, and that 
of boy is expressed by a numeral. 

There are no comparatives or superlatives among 



90 FATHER EELLS. 

the adjectives. If two horses are placed side by side, 
one is bad and the other is good ; but if the better of 
the two is compared with another still better, it becomes 
bad and the latter is called good. 

No inflections or changes were discovered to in- 
dicate person, number, mood, or tense among the 
verbs. The words for I, you, he, and the like were 
used to distinguish person. 

Phrases are very common, but not compounded 
according to rule. It was necessary to learn them by 
the power of memory, and these in a great measure 
take the place of grammar. In these phrases many 
contractions take place, and occasional changes of 
letters evidently for the sake of euphony. 

The language of the Spokanes is said to be the 
veritable Flathead language, and belongs to the Sali- 
shan family, spoken by many Indians, though not by 
all between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Moun- 
tains extending south of the Columbia and north a 
little beyond its sources. The geography of this 
Salishan family covers the greater portion of Washing- 
ton, southern Idaho, and much of British Columbia, 
though other families, as the Sahaptian, including 
the Nez Perces and Yakima, the Waiilatpuan, Chi- 
nookian, Chimakuan, Athapascan, and Wakashan, 
spoken at Neah Bay, are also used by the Indians of 
the state. The five latter families are, however, each 



THE MWISION ESTABLISHED. 91 

used by a very limited number of Indians in the 
state. Tbe Spokane language seems to have less 
regularity and grammar than many others belonging 
to the Salishan family, especially those on Puget 
Sound, as the Nisqually, Twana, and Clallam. 

JNIr. Eells gives the following statement about the 
flattening of the skull which gave rise to the term 
Flathead : " The artificial form was regarded as beau- 
tiful, and the aristocracy were distinguished by having 
such artificially formed heads, while in reproach the 
natural form was called ' turnip head.' " 

A school was also kept in Indian, the lessons being 
prepared on paper, hung up on the side of the house 
and read and recited in concert. Much interest was 
taken in the school for a time, the Indians going 
through the same lessons afterward by themselves 
with one of their own number as teacher. About 
1842 a small book of sixteen pages was published by 
the mission press at Lapwai which aided the school 
materially. 

Packing occupied considerable time — more than 
could well be spared, but it was imperative to have 
food, clothes, and the like, to go to mill and get the 
mail. They tried to substitute Indian help in this 
work, but when left alone the Indians were so careless 
that they destroyed too much property, and that 
method was abandoned. Even with some one to watch 



92 FATHER EELL8. 

them there was sometimes sad breakage. Some of 
Mr. Eells' kind scholars in the East sent him a port- 
able writing desk and bookcase. It came around Cape 
Horn and by water up the Columbia to Wallula with a 
bass viol and other articles. In taking it from Wal- 
lula one stopping place was Little Palouse Falls. An 
Indian used these articles as a hitching post while 
packing. The mule was restless and ran away, taking 
the desk with him. Against the rocks it went thump, 
thump, thump ! until it was demolished. It seemed 
unreasonable to rebuke the Indian sharply for such a 
ruinous act when unintentional. Moreover Mr. Eells 
was too sad to say much. He simply remarked, " Tia'' 
(it is bad), and gathered up the fragments. 

The large amount of time spent in manual labor was 
not, however, all lost. It helped the missionaries to 
become acquainted with Indian ways, which was very 
necessary. It also gave the Indians examples of 
industry and aided in civilizing and elevating them. 

Religious instruction was given through an inter- 
preter. A simple passage of the Bible was explained 
to one of the more intellectual and teachable In- 
dians beforehand. In public worship he acted as 
rehearser, speaking after the teacher and improving 
on his language. 

In a few years this branch of the mission, while 
showing less that was encouraging, also showed less 



THE MISSION ESTABLISHED, 93 

of a discouraging nature than any other station. It 
moved more evenly. Lapwai had congregations of 
one or two thousands, a great revival, and a school of 
several hundred, and yet Rev. A. B. Smith abandoned 
Kamiah partly because of ill treatment from the 
Indians. Mr. Spalding also was greatly troubled by 
them. At last an order even was issued by the Board 
to discontinue the stations at Lapwai and Waiilatpu, 
though the order was countermanded when Dr. Whit- 
man went East in 1842. 

Of the Indians here and the labor among them, Mr. 
Eells, under date of February 25, 1840, gives the 
following account : ' 

" We are advancing slowly in the acquisition of the 
language, though as yet our knowledge of it is very 
limited. Respecting the question. What language is it 
expedient to make use of as a medium of communica- 
tion ? we have but one opinion since learning the result 
of efforts to teach English to the Nez Perces. It is 
perhaps absolutely impossible to give this people a 
correct knowledge of the English language. If it 
were necessary, I would adduce facts to prove this 
point. The Flathead and the Nez Perces languages 
are distinct. Their philological construction is wholly 
unlike. We have not been able to find any one word 
common to both languages. 
1 Missionary Herald, 1840, p. 437. 



94 FATHER EELLS. 

"Your letter to Dr. Whitman, together with Mr. 
Pickering's essay respecting the orthography of Indian 
languages, has been our guide in preparing an alpha- 
bet. We have found no occasion to deviate from our 
instructions in this particular. 

"Taking this place as the center of a circle whose 
radius shall not exceed sixty miles, it will include a 
population of near two thousand souls, nine tenths of 
whom rarely, if ever, leave the above-specified ground 
for a length of time, unless it be for a few weeks in 
the spring. There are five or six bands, each of which 
has particular lands which they call theirs, and where 
they pass a portion of each year. So far as I can 
learn they are somewhat regular in their removings. 
If in this respect the last year be a fair specimen, we 
shall have no great difficulty, at almost any time, in 
knowing where to find a good collection. 

" In April a large number met in one plain to dig a 
root called popo. In May they returned to this place, 
and after remaining a few weeks moved to a large 
camass plain, ten miles from us. The camass is their 
most substantial root. It remains good from May till 
the next March. In June salmon begin to go up the 
Spokane River, which passes within six miles of our 
house. At first a barrier was constructed near some 
falls, ten miles from this place and perhaps fifteen miles 
from the camass grounds. At that place salmon were 



THE MISSION ESTABLISHED. 95 

taken only during high water, and then not in large 
quantities, as the barrier extended only a part of the 
way across the river. While the men and boys were 
employed at the salmon, the women were digging and 
preparing camass, and daily horses passed between the 
two places, loaded both ways, so that all could share 
in both kinds of food. As the water fell another bar- 
rier was built farther down, extending across the entire 
river ; and when completed men, women, and children 
made a general move to the place. If I judged cor- 
rectly, I saw there at one time near one thousand per- 
sons, and the number was rapidly increasing. From 
four to eight hundred salmon were taken in a day, 
weighing variously from ten to forty pounds apiece. 
When they ceased to take salmon, about the first of 
August, they returned to the camass ground, where they 
remained till October, and then began to make prep- 
arations for taking the poor salmon as they went down 
the river. During this month they were very much 
scattered, though not very remote from each other. 
In November they went to their wintering places. 

'' From March to November our congregations 
varied from thirty to one hundred, not more than one 
half of whom usually remained with us during the 
week. They often came ten, fifteen, and sometimes 
thirty miles on Saturday and returned again on Monday. 
Since November nearly two hundred have remained 



^Ji} FATHER EELLS. 

with us almost constantly. In addition to those just 
mentioned, there have been frequent visitors from 
neighboring bands, coming in various numbers, from 
three or four to sixty at a time. They usually spend 
one or two weeks and then return. 

" We have habitually conducted worship with them 
morning and evening, when we read a portion of 
Scriptures and, so far as we are able, explain it, sing, 
and pray. On the Sabbath we have had three services. 
While the weather continued warm, the place for wor- 
ship was under some pine trees ; but as it became cold 
a house was prepared entirely by the people, expressly 
for worship. It resembles somewiiat in form the roof 
of a house in New England, making the angle at the 
top much smaller than that of most modern houses. 
The frame is made of poles four or five inches in 
diameter, and covered with rush mats. Most of the 
Indian houses here are made in the same way. 

" For want of a thorough acquaintance with the lan- 
guage, much of the instruction communicated has 
related to Scripture history, though I think we have 
not failed to give them some correct ideas respecting 
the character of God, the fallen state of man, the 
doctrine of the atonement and regeneration, and the 
necessity of repentance and faith in Christ to secure 
salvation. It is strictly true that they must have 'line 
upon line ' ; every new idea must be repeated many 



THE MISSION ESTABLISHED. 97 

times. The nearer our teaching approaches to Sab- 
bath-school instruction, appropriate for small children, 
the better it is understood. This people are slow to 
believe that the religion we teach extends farther than 
to the external conduct. They wish to believe that 
to abstain from gross sin and attend to a form of wor- 
ship is all that is necessary to fit them for heaven. 

"There has usually been good attention during the 
time of worship. At first the appearance seemed to 
indicate a desire to hear something new. Of late I 
have perceived what I thought to be a little change, 
approximating toward a disposition to listen as to im- 
portant truth, though I am obliged to say as yet the 
word spoken appears to fall powerless, producing no 
deep and permanent effect upon the inward man. I 
have not been able to learn that they have any realiz- 
ing sense of the odious nature of sin, or of moral 
obligation. 

"During the last week in November a school was 
opened. At first it was composed of little more than 
thirty members, but has been gradually increasing so 
that it now numbers more than eighty. The attend- 
ance is very regular. The schoolhouse and house for 
worship are the same. Progress in teaching must 
necessarily be slow till a better knowledge of the lan- 
guage shall be obtained and books be prepared. As 
yet all the printing has been done with the pen. 



98 FATHER EELL8. 

"The method of teaching resembles somewhat that 
practiced by Mr. Mason, of Boston, with his juvenile 
class in music. There is certainly no want of ability 
to learn. The interest and pleasure manifested in this 
exercise are truly commendable. Probably much of 
it should be attributed to novelty. My opinion is that 
our chief efforts should be with the children. What 
the result of teaching will be we are utterly unable to 
predict. It can hardly be expected that the present 
desire to be taught will remain unabated. We hope 
with trembling. Judging from the past it would not 
be strange if our hopes respecting the school should 
be suddenly blasted. 

'' Respecting the Indian character I will only say that 
I think a missionary on his first acquaintance with them 
will be inclined to judge quite too favorably, and give 
an extravagant account of their readiness to receive 
the gospel. That error in this respect has been com- 
mitted is very evident, but it should not be thought 
strange ; for so great is the danger of being deceived 
that I am almost afraid to say anything on this point, 
even after having been among them more than a 3'ear. 

" In relation to tlie future prospects of the mission 
I do not feel competent to express an opinion. I 
consider it very unfortunate that so much precipi-* 
tancy has characterized some of its proceedings, but 
hope we shall learn wisdom for the future. 



THE MISSION ESTABLISHED. 99 

" Some itinerant labor ougiit to be performed. It is 
vain to expect that the habits of these natives to a 
great extent will be suddenly changed. Agricultural 
pursuits should be encouraged, but years must elapse 
before they can become generaL I hazard nothing in 
saying that if abundance of corn and potatoes were 
furnished them, the}' would not be satisfied without 
some of their accustomed roots. Attempts at cultivat- 
ing have been made by some of the Indians near us, 
but the last season was particularly unfavorable. 
There was frost on the morning of the fifteenth of 
May, and again on August 20. The drouth was so 
severe that the potato crop failed almost entirely. The 
nights during the summer were generally cold. Some- 
times there were fifty degrees difference between the 
temperature of the day and the night. There are 
places near us where there is frost in midsummer. 
The extremes of heat and cold have been 98° above 
and 5° below zero. Snow or rain has fallen during 
almost every week since the first of November. I 
think not one day in four has been pleasant weather. 
Our poor houses have been hardly suflficient to protect 
us from the storms, though our health has not mate- 
rially suffered from this exposure." 

The next winter Mr. Eells lost much by fire. His 
own account of it, dated March 8, 1840, is as follows; ^ 
1 Missionary Herald, X841, p. 435. 



100 FATHER EELLS. 

"On the morning of JanuaiT 11 we met with 
a heavy loss. While engaged in family worship our 
house took fire, and being mostly lined with rush mats 
and having no inside doors, except cloths hung up, 
the flame spread so rapidly that it went through every 
part of the building before an article was removed. 
After the first flash had passed such things as were in 
boxes were mostly saved. But before anything was 
taken out the greater part of the more valuable prop- 
erty which the house contained was nearly destroyed, 
such as library, writing desks, clock, watch, two beds 
and bedding, much personal clothing, a quantity of 
Indian goods, tinware, riding and pack saddles, 
traveling apparatus, etc. Our food was mostly saved. 
The walls of the house, built of rough logs, were not 
essentially injured, except in being badly charred 
upon the inside. 

" You will not understand me as saying that all 
which I have specified was wholly consumed. Some 
things were only half burned, though in many cases 
what was saved is of little or no value. A few arti- 
cles may be repaired. The greater loss is the library. 
A relic of almost every book is left. Little more 
than the covers of a few are essentially injured, while 
of others there is not an entire page remaining. 

"At the time that the fire commenced the mercury 
in the thermometer stood at 8^° below zero. The 



THE MISSION ESTABLISHED, 101 

conduct of the natives on this occasion was very com- 
mendable. As soon as the alarm was given almost the 
whole camp came to our assistance, and considering 
that it was the first fire of the kind they ever saw, 
they did admirably well. Generally the honesty ex- 
hibited in restoring small articles which might have 
been easily concealed was very pleasing. 

"Mr. McDonald, who is in charge at Fort Colville, 
on hearing of our misfortune, unasked dispatched four 
men immediately, who soon made our house habit- 
able. Two gentlemen of the Hudson's Bay Company, 
Messrs. McLean and McPherson, volunteered their 
services to assist in whatever was necessary to be 
done, and came at the same time with the men, or 
rather led the march. All camped upon the ground 
when the mercury must have been not less than 10° 
below zero, and the snow from six inches to one foot 
in depth. This is but a specimen of the unvaried 
kindness shown us by the gentlemen of the company 
with which we have had no particular intercourse 
or connection." 

As to mission prospects Mr. Eells added : — 
"During the past winter nearly two hundred and 
fifty Indians have been encamped by us. As iias been 
usual since we first came here so now there is good 
external attention to religious worship. If we judge 
correctly, there has been a marked increase in the 



102 FATHEB EELLS. 

knowledg-e of divine truth. This is especially true of 
the chief mentioned in the Herald by the name of 
Big Head. It has been a rather general impression 
among the best-informed Indians that thieves, gam- 
blers, Sabbath breakers, and such like will go to a 
place of misery when they die, but that such as are 
not guilty of open vices, and attend to a form of 
worship, will go above. We have labored much to 
correct this and kindred errors, and unless we greatly 
mistake, our labor has not been in vain. The language 
of the chief is : ' I formerly thought my heart was 
good, but I now see it is not.' Respecting the wick- 
edness of the heart his expressions are at times forci- 
ble. He says to his people : ' We are full of all 
manner of wickedness — are covered up in our sins. 
They hold us like strong cords. One thing must be 
done. Our hearts must be changed or we shall go 
below when we die.' Some are respectful and atten- 
tive to our instructions, evidently with the hope of 
obtaining from us some pecuniary reward. 

"The school has been taught fourteen weeks. It 
commenced the last of November. The whole number 
of pupils who have attended has not varied much from 
seventy, though the average number, I think, has been 
about fifty. As was expected novelty had its influence 
in causing some to attend for a time who have since 
fallen off. A few of the older members have been 



THE MISSION ESTABLISHED, 103 

necessarily absent so much that they have fallen 
behind those much younger than themselves, and, as 
I suppose on account of shame, have ceased to attend. 
The manifest interest in the school, both among the 
parents and children, is as great as can reasonably 
be expected. Instruction has been given in reading, 
spelling, arithmetic, and music. The proficiency gen- 
erally made by the school has been quite satisfactory 
to the teachers. I have been agreeably surprised at 
the readiness with which correct answers have been 
given to questions relating to numbers. They are 
passionately fond of music. This has occupied only 
a secondary place in teaching, though my own opinion 
is that it may be made use of as a powerful instru- 
ment in the moral training of the children. One 
thing is certain ; they will spend much time in singing 
and it is very desirable that the lewd songs now in use 
should be exchanged as speedily as possible for those 
of a different character." 

The above letter speaks of music. It may be 
added that a blackboard for teaching music was made 
by pasting strips of paper on the board to indicate the 
five lines of the staff ; a blacking made of soot and 
skim-milk was applied to the board, the paper was 
torn off, and the board was complete. Thus they 
were taught to sing by note. 

The first attempt to giiide tlieui in sacred song was 



104 



FATHER EELLS, 



in the use of the doxology. Their compass of voice 
was such that they were able to sing it in three 
octaves in the key of F. Then Mr. Eells made the 
following hymn and tune, the only religious one in 
that language so far as the writer knows. 




q=1^ 



i^+^ 



Lam - a-lem, on - a - we Je 

Thanks . . thee ... Je 



ho 
ho 



vah, 
vah. 



?=i^ 



-<5f 



^ 



Kain - pe - la 
We .... 



tas ka - leel, kait - 

not . . dead. We 



ah 

all 



<5> 



wheel 
a 



wheel. 

live. 



Kain 
We 



pe 



la 



m 



tr=: 



ets - in - ko 
sing 



kaits 
We . 



chow. 
pray. 



This has been very popular and is still sung with 
earnestness by those Indians. Mr. McLean, of the 
Hudson's Bay Company, said that he had heard 
the Indians singing it on the tops of the Rocky 
Mountains. 

The next winter was so severe that only about fifty 



THE MISSION ESTABLISHED. 105 

Indians remained near the station. What could be 
done was done to teach the few children there. Pub- 
lic worship was conducted three times each Sabbath 
and twice during the week. There was respectful 
attention to religious instruction. Many knew their 
duty, but did it not. 

During the year ending March 1, 1841, Mr. Eells 
traveled for the station twelve hundred miles on 
horsel)ack, work which took him from home fifty- 
seven days. He also went more than four hundred 
miles to teach the Indians, which took him from home 
twenty-three days more. On some of these trips sick 
Indians thronged him, appearing to think he had med- 
icine to cure every ill. At last he was obliged to tell 
them that white people were sick and died, notwith- 
standing the fact that they were attended by skillful 
physicians. This confession obtained a respite from 
their entreaties. A few Indians were seen wearing 
the papal cross. ^ 

During that winter besides the school at the station, 
which numbered only eleven, another was kept up five 
miles distant which had twenty- two scholars, and was 
visited by some one from the mission almost daily. ^ 

After this the school continued, but seldom num- 
bered more than fifteen ; yet progress was made. 

1 Missionary Herald, 184.<, p. 81. 

2Annual Report A. B. C. F. M., 1843, p. 171. 



106 FATHEB BELLS. 

More labor than usual, too, was performed for the 
older Indians. Never before had there been half as 
much done for them, and never before was so much 
tro'uble experienced or abuse received. In proportion 
to the compassion bestowed and labor rendered they 
vexed and tried their teachers. Still there was satis- 
faction in the consciousness of having tried to do 
them good. The missionaries were armed with an 
answer when tauntingly asked what they had ever 
done for the Indians ; and they cherished hope that 
in due time fruit would appear. ^ 

In the autumn of 1842 began the ever-memorable 
journey of Dr. Whitman to the East in order to do 
what he could to save Oregon to the United States, 
as well as to attend to missionary business. The 
history of it belongs to the life of Dr. Whitman 
and the history of Oregon and Washington. It 
has been thoroughly discussed by the writer in 
his "History of Indian Missions," and by other 
writers in various books and newspapers. Hence it 
will be necessary to speak here only of Dr. Eells' 
connection with it. 

Rev. H. H. Spalding was about the first person to 
make known the fact of Dr. Whitman's going east 
on a political errand. Dr. G. H. Atkinson learned 
of it, and believed that this work ought to be set to 

1 Missionary Herald, 1IS44, p. 386. 



THE MISSION ESTABLISHED, 107 

the credit of missions. He said so piiblicW. In his 
journey east in 1865 he told the secretaries of tlie 
American Board that while they had been accustomed 
to look upon their Oregon mission as a failure, it 
was a grand success. They were very skeptical, and 
thought that many extravagant assertions had been 
made about Whitman's achievement. Dr. Atkinson 
replied : " Write to Dr. Eells, as you know him to be 
careful in his statements, and are accustomed to rely 
on what he says." Secretary S. B. Treat did so. 
Dr. Eells, under date of May 28, 1866, made a full 
statement, which was published in the December num- 
ber of The Missionary Herald. In it are the follow- 
ing statements : — 

"The Hudson's Bay Company at an early day 
was aware of the existence of mineral deposits in 
that portion of Oregon claimed both by England and 
the United States. If I remember correctly, I had 
not been long in this country before the statement 
was made that gold had been found on the Columbia 
River, taken to England, made into a watch seal, 
brought back here, and worn by a gentleman con- 
nected with the Hudson's Bay Company. In those 
early days Dr. Whitman made in my hearing the fol- 
lowing statement : — 

" ' There is no doubt that this country abounds in 
the precious metals. In the autumn or early winter of 



108 FATHER FELLS. 

1843 a German botanist was traveling with employes 
of tbe Hudson's Bay Company, and, having had some 
knowledge of mining operations in Germany, he ex- 
pressed to his fellow travelers the opinion that pre- 
cious metals existed in a designated locality. He was 
particularly interrogated as to the reasons for such an 
opinion ; and when they were satisfied that it was an 
intelligent conclusion they replied : ' We know such 
to be the case from actual investigation.' But while 
the resources of the country were measurably appre- 
ciated, special effort was made to produce the impres- 
sion that the country was of small value and that 
much of it was worthless.' 

"Previous to 1843, Mrs. McDonald, at Fort Col- 
ville, had a collection of mineral specimens, a portion 
of which she presented to Mrs. Eells. These were 
shown to Dr. Whitman on his return in 1843. They 
attracted considerable attention, but there were no 
means at hand to ascertain their value. 

"In entire accordance with such representations, 
Chief Factor A. McDonald expressed himself dis- 
tinctly and fully to me. He also gave it as his opin- 
ion that if England should obtain the desired portion 
of Oregon (then including Washington Territory), it 
would be made over to the Hudson's Bay Company. 
In 1842, if I mistake not, the same gentleman asked 
me who, fifty years hence, would probably compose 



THE MISSION ESTABLISHED, 109 

the inhabitants of this country. He answered the 
question himself by saying substantially, ' The de- 
scendants of the Hudson's Bay Company.' Dr. Whit- 
man said, with reference to the same class of persons 
(of mixed blood) : ' Fifty years hence they will not be 
found.' Dr. Whitman understood, with a good de- 
gree of correctness, apparently, that it was the plan 
of the Hudson's Bay Company to secure this country 
to the English government. Undoubtedly he felt 
strongly in reference to this subject. At that time his 
missionary associates judged that he was disturbed to 
an unwarrantable degree. The result has furnished 
accumulative evidence that there was sufficient reason 
for determined earnestness on his part. 

"An unyielding purpose was formed by Dr. Whit- 
man to go East. The mission was called together to 
consider whether or not its approval could be given 
to the proposed undertaking. Mr. Walker and myself 
were decidedly opposed, and we yielded only when it 
became evident that he would go, even if he had to 
becon:,2 disconnected from the mission in order to do 
so. According to the understanding of the members 
of the mission, the single object of Dr. Whitman in 
attempting to cross the continent in the winter of 
1842-43, amid mighty peril and suffering, was to 
make a desperate effort to save this country to the 
United States, 



110 FATHER EELLS. 

"On reaching Washington he learned that repre- 
sentations had been made there corresponding to 
those which had been often repeated on this coast. 
* Oregon,' it was said, ' would most likely be unimpor- 
tant to the United States. It was difficult of access. 
A wagon road thither was an impossibility.' By such 
statements Governor Simpson (the territorial governor 
of the Hudson's Bay Company) had well-nigh suc- 
ceeded in accomplishing his object of purchasing this 
country, not for a mess of pottage, but a cod-fishery ! 
Dr. Whitman was barely able to obtain from Presi- 
dent Tyler the promise that negotiations should be 
suspended. 

"His next object was to expose the falsity of the 
statement that the Rocky and Blue Mountains could 
not be passed by immigrant wagons. It soon became 
known, to some extent, that Dr. Whitman would ac- 
company those who would attempt to go to the Colum- 
bia that season in this manner. The fact induced 
numbers to decide to go who would not otherwise 
have done so. If I judge correctly, the testimony has 
been unvarying and abundant that the success of the 
expedition depended upon the knowledge, skill, en- 
ergy, and perseverance of Dr. Whitman. Extrava- 
gant language has been used, expressive of the 
confidence of the emigrants of 184.3 in his ability to 
conduct them successfully through difficulties which, 



THE 3IISSI0JV ESTABLISHED. HI 

in the estimation of many, were regarded as utter im- 
possibilities. The fording of the Platte with such a 
train was an untried and in some respects a perilous 
undertaking ; and yet it was signally successful. 

*'In 1839 Rev. J. S. Griffin and his missionary 
associates traveled from the western frontier to Fort 
Hall with wagons. They were there told by agents of 
the Hudson's Bay Company that it was impracticable, 
if not impossible, to take their wagons to Walla Walla. 
Consequently teams and wagons were exchanged for 
pack animals and fixtures. In 1840 Rev. H. Clarke 
and other missionary laborers performed the same 
journey in like manner. At Fort Hall they were 
induced to leave their wagons. In 1843 this game was 
tried again, and at the opportune moment when Dr. 
Whitman was absent from camp. On his return he 
found some weeping, others much disturbed. He at 
once comprehended the plot, and then and there is 
said to have addressed them as follows ; ' My coun- 
trymen, you have trusted me thus far; believe me 
now, and I will take your wagons to the Columbia 
River.' 

"I may not be able to furnish evidence entirely sat- 
isfactory^ to others, but in view of all the past relating 
to this subject, of which I have been an eye and ear 
witness since August, 1838, I am prepared to sa}' that 
to my mind there is not the shadow of a doubt that 



112 FATHEB EELL8, 

Dr. Whitman, by his efforts with President Tyler and 
Secretary Webster, in 1843, and his agency during the 
same year in conducting an immigrant train from the 
western frontier to the Columbia River, was instru- 
mental in saving a valuable portion of the Northwest 
to the United States. Am I extravagant in adding 
that the importance of this service to our country will 
not be likely to be overestimated? When the iron 
track of the Northern Pacific Railroad shall have the 
two oceans for its termini, and the commerce of the 
world shall move over the most direct route, and when 
the latent resources of this vast region shall have been 
fully developed, there will be a theme worthy of the 
best endeavors of the statesman and orator." 

Dr. Treat made public use of this statement in 
the autumn of 1866, at the meeting of the American 
Board, and it was copied far and wide by the eastern 
and western press. 

About 1880 these facts began to be questioned, then 
denied, by such persons as Hon. Elwood Evans, Mrs. 
F. F. Victor, Judge M. P. Deady, and others. It was 
denied that Dr. Whitman went East with any political 
intent whatever, that he did anything politically while 
there, that any meeting of the mission was held 
authorizing him to go, and even that he went to Wash- 
ington at all. The discussion which followed, often 
called the Whitman Controversy, was long and volu- 



THE HUSSION ESTABLISHED. 113 

minous, especially in 1884-85. Dr. Eells followed it 
with the greatest interest, though he let others do 
most of the w^riting. At times he almost feared that 
from Dr. Whitman, from the cause of missions, from 
the cause of Christ would be snatched the honors 
which he believed belong to them. Among other state- 
ments made during this controversy the following 
was made by Dr. Eells : — 

"September, 1842, a letter written by Dr. Whitman, 
addressed to Rev. Messrs. E. Walker and C. Eells at 
Tshimakain, reached its destination and was received 
by the persons to whom it was written. By the con- 
tents of said letter a meeting of the Oregon Mission 
of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign 
Missions was invited to be held at Waiilatpu. The 
object of said meeting, as stated in the letter named, 
was to approve of a purpose formed by Dr. Whit- 
man, that he go East on behalf of Oregon as related to 
the United States. In the judgment of Mr. Walker 
and myself that object was foreign to our assigned 
work. With troubled thoughts we anticipated the pro- 
posed meeting. On the following day, Wednesday, we 
started, and on Saturday afternoon camped on the Tou- 
chet, at the ford near the Mullan bridge. We were 
pleased with the prospect of enjoying a period of rest, 
reflection, and prayer — needful preparation for the an- 
tagonism of opposing ideas. We never moved camp 



114 FATHEB EELLS, 

on the Lord's Day. On Monday morning we arrived 
at Waiilatpu and met the two resident families of 
Messrs. Whitman and Gray. Rev. H. H. Spalding 
was there. All the male members of the mission were 
thus together. In the discussion the opinion of Mr. 
Walker and myself remained unchanged. The pur- 
pose of Dr. Whitman was fixed. In his estimation 
the saving of Oregon to the United States w^as of par- 
amount importance, and he w^ould make the attempt 
to do so, even if he had to withdraw from the mission 
in order to accomplish his purpose. In reply to 
considerations intended to hold Dr. Whitman to his 
assigned work, he said : ' I am not expatriated by 
becoming a missionary.' The idea of his withdrawal 
could not be entertained, therefore to retain him in the 
mission a vote to approve of his making the perilous 
endeavor prevailed. He had a cherished object for 
the accomplishment of which he desired consultation 
with Rev. David Greene, secretary of correspondence 
with the mission at Boston, Mass., but I have no 
recollection that it was named in the meeting. A part 
of two days was spent in consultation. Record of 
the date and acts of the meeting was made. The 
book containing the same was in the keeping of the 
Whitman family. At the time of their massacre, 
November 29, 1847, it disappeared. 

"The fifth day of October following was desig- 



THE MISSION ESTABLISHED. 115 

nated as the day on which Dr. Whitman would ex- 
pect to start from Waiilatpu. Accordingly, letters, of 
which he was to be the bearer, were required to be 
furnished him at his station in accordance therewith. 
INIr. Walker and myself returned to Tshimakain, 
prepared letters and forwarded them seasonably to 
Waiilatpu. By the return of the courier information 
was received that Dr. Whitman started on the third 
of October. It is possible that transpirings at old 
Fort Walla Walla hastened his departure two days. 

*' Soon after his return to tliis coast Dr. Whitman 
said to me he wished he could return East immediately, 
as he believed he could accomplish more than he had 
done, as I understood him to mean, to save this coun- 
try to the United States. I asked him why he could 
not go. He said : ' I cannot go without seeing Mrs. 
Whitman.' She w^as then in the Willamette valley. 

*'I solemnly affirm that the foregoing statements are 
true and correct, according to the best of my knowl- 
edge and belief. So help me God. 

(Signed) ''GUSHING EELLS. 

" Sworn and subscribed to before me this twenty- 
third day of August, 1883. 

(Signed) " L. E. KELLOGG, 

*' Notary Public^ Spokane County^ Washington Territory.^' 

The journal of Mr. Walker afterwards discovered 



116 FATHEB EELLS. 

confirmed Mr. Eells' statement about the meeting 
being held and its date, by writings made at the time, 
and the unearthing by Dr. S. J. Parker, of Ithaca, 
N. Y., in 1891, of a letter of Dr. Whitman's in Wash- 
ington, D. C, written by him in 1843 to James M. 
Porter, secretary of war, and by another writing 
made at the time, proved beyond possibility of dis- 
pute that he went to Washington with political intent. 
Dr. Eells had the satisfaction of living to see the facts 
so thoroughly believed that they were published not 
only by the missionary and religious press and Gray's 
'' History of Oregon," which might be accused of 
bias in their favor, but by Barrows' '' Oregon," 
Butterworth's "Log Schoolhouse on the Columbia," 
Gilbert's "Historic Sketches of Walla Walla, Whit- 
man, Columbia, and Garfield Counties of Washing- 
ton, and Umatilla County of Oregon," Lang's " His- 
tory of the Willamette Valley," Brown's " Political 
History of Oregon," and Scudder's "History of the 
United States, for Schools and Academies." When 
Dr. Eells was presented with a copy of the latter 
work, which contains also a picture of Dr. Whitman 
leaving his station for Washington, it was most plain 
that the truth learned by the school children had been 
fostered by God and would be scattered so far and 
wide and deep that no combination of learned men 
or human reasoning could successfully oppose it. 



THE MISSION ESTABLISHED. 117 

Although at first Dr. Eells was decidedly opposed 
to Dr. Whitman's going East, and only yielded when 
the reasons seemed sufficient, yet he afterwards said 
that the little he had to do as a member of the meet- 
ing which authorized Dr. Whitman to go at that time 
gave him great satisfaction as one of the best episodes 
of his life. 

A letter written by Mrs. Eells to her sister in Massa- 
chusetts gives the following items : — 

" Our Indians were never more about us than now. 
Some three or four are at work for Mr. Eells prepar- 
ing timber for a new house to be put up in the spring 
if prospered. Besides we try to employ a number of 
boys and girls for the threefold purpose of keeping 
them out of idleness, encouraging industry, and fur- 
nishing them food. Mr. Walker employs about as 
many. The Indians are quiet and very submissive at 
present but do not seem inclined to seek the one thing 
needful. They spend a great deal of time in gam- 
bling and jugglery. If we could see them embracing 
the truth in the love of it, our hearts would leap for 
joy. If I was sure I had not run before I was sent, 
I would on no condition leave them, though I may 
never in this life be permitted to see much fruit of our 
labor. 

" Mrs. Walker and myself observe the last Wednes- 
day afternoon of each month in concert with the other 



118 FATHEB EELL8. 

members of the missions as a season of prayer for 
our children. There is quite a large maternal associa- 
tion, of which perhaps I may tell you I am president. 
I have never seen half of the members and probably 
never shall. . . . 

" We observed last Monday as a day of fasting and 
prayer in connection with the churches at home for 
the conversion of the world. We observe the monthly 
concert and our Tuesday evening meetings, though we 
seldom have more than our own little number, four. 
I think there have never been more than six pro- 
fessors of religion present at any one time, and never 
more than three men." 

The maternal association mentioned in this letter 
was probably the first on the coast, and was organized 
September 3, 1838, at Dr. AVhitmau's. It then con- 
sisted of the six women connected with the mission. 
By 1842 seven others had joined it, two of whom 
were the wives of persons connected with the Hud- 
son's Bay Company, and the other five were the wives 
of men who came to the country as independent mis- 
sionaries. The preamble says : — 

'' Sensible of the evils that beset the young mind 
in a heathen land, and confident that no arm but 
God's can secure our children or those committed to 
our care from the dangers that surround them and 
bring them early into the fold of Christ and fit them 



THE MISSION ESTABLISHED. 119 

for usefulness here and glory hereafter, we the sub- 
scribers agree to form ourselves into an association 
for the purpose of adopting such rules as are best 
calculated to assist us in the right performance of our 
maternal duties." 

Its name was the Columbia Maternal Association. 

Thus affairs went on without much change until the 
winter of 1846-47. This season was very severe. 
Mrs. Eells wrote : — 

" The past winter has been the most severe in the 
memory of the oldest Indians. The snow began to 
fall about the middle of November ; about the 
middle of December it was not far from two feet 
deep and it continued to increase to the first of 
March. For more than five months the earth was 
clothed in a robe of white ; for more than three 
months we were literally buried in snow ; all the 
west side of our house was banked to the roof and 
would have been dark only that the snow was shoveled 
from the windows. Our meetinghouse was not opened 
from the seventeenth of January till the last Sabbath 
in March, and then Mr. Eells went on snowshoes. 
Several Indians went to worship on the first Sabbath 
of April, but Mr. Eells went on horseback ; sometimes 
it was so cold that the air cut like a knife and about 
the first of March we could not keep ourselves comfort- 
able. From the middle of December until some time 



l20 FATHER EELLS. 

in April, men, women, find cliiklren traveled on snow- 
shoes — ever3^wbere outside of the everyday beaten 
path. The extent of Mr. Eells' and Mr. Walker's 
traveling was to the Indian lodges and about a quarter 
of a mile to feed their horses and cattle ; it was only 
by unwearied labor and the greatest economy in feed- 
ing that enough of our cattle and horses were saved for 
present use. Only one horse has died, but we have 
lost twelve cattle. We have, however, had an abun- 
dance of the necessaries of life, and more of its 
luxuries tlian has sometimes fallen to our lot. 

" The fore part of the winter, both Indian men and 
women spent a great part of their time and strength 
digging away the snow so that their horses could get 
grass. Sometimes they would cut long grass and feed 
them ; but almost all died before the last of January. 
The old chief says he had seventy horses and thirty 
cattle but before the close of April he had no horse 
and only two cattle. The Indians generally had from 
one to ten horses, some more, some less, some not any, 
but all alike are now on foot. I do not know of half 
a dozen live ones in all this region belonging to the 
Indians. They had nearly forty cattle which they had 
obtained through our instrumentality ; there are only 
three or four left. A band of sixteen cattle belong- 
ing to the Ray Indians was sent to the Spokane River 
to winter ; onh' one of them is now alive. 



THE MISSION ESTABLISHED. 121 

"At Colville the Hudson's Bay Company had two 
hundred and seventy horses ; by April only thre.e were 
alive. Every one of another band of eighty horses 
belonging to a single man is dead. The horses of 
the Indians in that region and also of the Bay Indians 
farther north are all dead. At Colville some of the 
cattle froze to death standing." 

In April, 1847, she writes about shoes which were 
sent from the East to her children, who were then 
about three and a half and five and a half years 
old : — 

"They have many thanks to send their little cousins 
for their contributions (though they never saw but 
one pair of shoes) , which are certainly very valuable in 
this country where the snow lies on the ground four or 
five months in a year. They usually wear moccasins 
and are obliged to stay in the house or have wet feet." 

About the same time she wrote about a shawl which 
had been sent in a box from the Eastern States. She 
says : — 

" Mrs. AYalker and I had each our red merino shawls 
that we wore in the States (nine years previous) and 
our plaids are pretty good, though they have been 
washed several times, and we concluded it was best 
to send the shawl to Mrs. Whitman, as we were pretty 
sure she had none. She has since sent back many 
thanks, as she was destitute," 



122 FATHER EELLS, 

Their experience in making cheese is given in this 
way: — 

" Last year and the year before we had milk, so 
that we made a few small cheeses. Just to prove how 
necessity can invent new ways when old ones are not 
at hand, I will tell you how we went to work. At 
first, I believe, Mrs. McDonald, of Fort Colville, gave 
us a little rennet, but we could bring no curd with it. 
Then Dr. Whitman gave us a little beef's rennet, but 
we succeeded no better with it. At last Mrs. Walker 
thought that perhaps young deer's rennet would do, 
so after a while an Indian brought us one which we 
tried, and it did well. But perhaps you will say. Why 
did you not have calves' rennet? Because a general 
feeling has prevailed that calves must not be killed. 

*' Now for the cheese basket and tongs, and some- 
thing to dress it in and with. The first named uten- 
sils we did without. We succeeded in getting a two- 
gallon keg sawed in two, which served for hoops, and 
at first we pressed with stones and bags of musket 
balls. Last year Mrs. Walker made herself a lever 
which saved her strength some, but I did not try any- 
thing new." 

About the same time, March, 1847, she wrote her 
mother a letter which shows her filial affection. 

''My dear father, he is gone! I shall never more 
see or hear from him. O death, thou hast done thy 



THE MISSION ESTABLISHED. 123 

work for my dear father ! My dear mother, a very 
dear mother ! — I know that she has lived to a good old 
age ; and I know too that sickness, care, and anxiety 
must have made a great change, both in her physical 
and mental powers. I know that the aged must die. 
Is my dear mother coming down to the grave like a 
shock of corn fully ripe ? Oh, happy thought ! Am I 
preparing to follow her? I, as well you know, am past 
the meridian of life. How much we have to praise the 
Redeemer for, if we shall be permitted to meet at his 
right hand ! I often pray that we, with all my dear 
brothers and sisters, may be so unspeakably happy as 
to meet in heaven with our father and all the redeemed 
saints, forever to celebrate the love of Jesus. 

' ' Edwin and Myron think very much of the books 
sent them last fall ; I think they learn books very well, 
but they can never know the noble, exhilarating feel- 
ing there is connected with going to worship in a good 
meetinghouse where they can understand what is said, 
or to a good school with others of their own age. But 
I have no doubt the Lord will take care of them if we 
do our duty. 

* ' It is true that we have passed a long and dreary 
winter, and we are still in it ; but if we could see the 
perishing Indians taking the milk and honey, we should 
feel amply repaid for all our privations. 

*'We have been here almost nine years and have 



124 FATHER EELLS, 

not yet been permitted to hear the cries of one peni- 
tent or the songs of one redeemed soul. We often 
ask ourselves, Why is it? Yet we labor on, hoping 
and waiting, and expecting that the seed though long 
buried will spring up and bear fruit. We feel increas- 
ingly interested in our work, and though we do not see 
the immediate fruit of our labor, yet we cannot fiud 
it in our hearts to leave the people. We cannot say 
that they have persecuted us so that we should be 
authorized to ' flee to another cit3\' They listen to 
the Word respectfully, but it appears to produce no 
saving effect." 



CHAPTER V. 



THE MISSION BROKEN UP. 



"TN 1847 occurred the saddest event in the history 
-■- of missions on the Pacific slope and one of the 
saddest in the entire history of the coast. Dr. Whit- 
man, his wife, and eight others were massacred at his 
station on November 29, and four others soon after, 
making fourteen in all. The result was the entire 
breaking up of the missions of the American Board, 
never to be resumed as such. The history of this, 
like that of Dr. Whitman's journey to Washington, 
belongs to the history of Oregon or the life of Dr. 
Whitman. Only such bearings on it as relate to the 
life and work of Mr. Eells require record here. 

Twice it was the intention of Mr. Eells to be at 
Dr. Whitman's at the time of the massacre, and twice 
his purpose was thwarted as plainly as was his going 
to Africa. 

The long cold winter at Tshimakain, and especially 
that of 1846-47, together with the apparent want of 
success in inducing the Indians to become Christians, 
had been very trying to health, especially to that of Mr. 
Eells. Four children at that station were old enough 

125 



126 FATHER EELLS, 

to go to school, three of Mr. Walker's and one of Mr. 
Eells', and more soon would be. 

The large number of immigrants, many of whom 
came by way of Dr. Whitman's and some of whom 
stopped there, made the importance of that station 
greater than that of the others. Dr. Whitman was 
breaking down under his work. He greatly felt the 
need of more help, especially that of an ordained 
minister. The Methodists were closing their missions 
in Oregon. They offered their station at The Dalles 
for sale. Dr. Whitman considered it a very important 
point. Here had been the most successful mission 
of the Methodists among the Indians, and here for a 
long time to come the Indians would congregate in 
large numbers on account of its fisheries. It would 
also be an important point among the whites, the 
gateway between eastern and western Oregon. Dr. 
Whitman was looking out for the religious and educa- 
tional interests of the whites as well as of the Indians, 
and was urging the Home Missionary and Tract soci- 
eties to send laborers into the field. His idea was 
that a college should be located at The Dalles. Con- 
sequently that station was bought, and at the annual 
meeting of the mission in the summer of 1847 it was 
decided that Mr. Walker was to move there and have 
charge of it; Mr. Eells was to move to Dr. Whit- 
man's, spending his winters for the benefit of the 



THE MISSION BROKEN UP. 127 

whites, and his summers in itinerating with the Indi- 
ans. Mr. Spalding also was to move there. Thus 
man in his wisdom proposes ; God in his higher wis- 
dom disposes differently. 

Mrs. Walker's health was such in the fall that they 
thought it unwise to move, and it seemed decidedly 
better for Mr. Eells to remain with them. For some 
reason now unknown Mr. Spalding also did not move 
as contemplated. It became necessar}^ to send Dr. 
Whitman's nephew, Perin B. Whitman, from his sta- 
tion to The Dalles, and he and Mr. A. Hinman were 
to have charge of it for the winter, the latter having 
taught school at Dr. Whitman's. Thus P. B. Whit- 
man and the families of Messrs. Spalding and Eells 
were kept away from Dr. Whitman's at the time of 
the massacre. 

Again, during several weeks previous to the mas- 
sacre, an artist, J. M. Stanley, had been busy at the 
mission stations and posts of the Hudson's Bay Com- 
pany, making drawings and pictures of various scenes 
and of whites and Indians. About the middle of 
November he was at Tshimakain, and the time was 
very near when he intended to return to Dr. Whit- 
man's. Mr. Eells proposed to accompany him. Mr. 
Stanley had gone with Mr. Walker to Fort Colville. 
On the first night out from Colville they encamped at a 
specially favorable place for preventing their animals 



128 FATHEB EELLS. 

from straying. Nearly the entire band of horses 

and mules was there. They were properly hobbled ; 

yet not one of them was found the next morning. An 

ineffectual search was made for them during the day. 

To human view this disappointment could not be 

understood ; but Mr. Walker believed that 

''Behind a frowning Providence 
He hides a smiling face." 

and said to Mr. Stanley: "This means something." 
It did. It meant the saving of Mr. Eells' life. 

The delay was such and so much snow began to 
fall that Mr. Eells questioned the advisability of his 
making the journey as proposed. In prayer he decided 
not to go. Had he gone as at first planned he would 
have been ready to leave Dr. Whitman's on the morn- 
ing of the massacre. Whether he would have been 
killed there is not certain, but he always felt that, if 
not killed then, he would have been followed and killed 
before he could have escaped. 

Mr. Eells tells the following incident about Mr. 
Walker : In the early years of the mission the latter 
went to Mr. Spalding's for flour with two Indians. 
When they reached the North Palouse in returning 
they found that stream so swollen with rains that it 
could not be forded. A raft was made. One Indian 
attempted to convey Mr. Walker across. He did not 
make the landing and jumped ashore, intending to 



THE MISSION BBOKEN UP. 129 

take hold of the raft and pull it ashore ; but in jump- 
ing he pushed it farther out into the stream. Mr. 
Walker was borne rapidly down the current. The 
Indians ran to note the place where he would be 
drowned. But Providence grounded the raft just 
before it reached the fatal spot, and he was saved. In 
reply to a question from Mr. Eells as to his feelings, 
when alone on that doubtful ride, Mr. Walker did not 
immediately repW, but said that on subsequent reflec- 
tion he had concluded that his work was not yet done. 
The same was undoubtedly true of Mr. Eells. His 
work, as shown during the next forty-five years, was 
not yet done. 

As Mr. Eells did not go with Mr. Stanley, an Indian 
named Solomon went with him. When they reached 
Dry Creek, a few miles from Dr. Whitman's, they 
learned of the massacre and turned and went to 
Fort Walla Walla (Wallula) . Solomon returned, and 
through him Mr. Stanley reported the essential facts 
of the massacre and added that the Cayuse Indians 
intended to send a party to kill those at Tshimakain. 
Mr. Eells did not believe it, though the. others were 
disturbed by the assertion, and Mrs. Eells spoke of 
the fitness of being prepared for a sudden death. 

Another announcement a little later, however, 
did disturb Mr. Eells. Indians from that region 
were accustomed to go to the Willamette valley for 



130 FATHEB EELL8, 

employment by the whites. About sixty were there at 
the time of the massacre. The Cay uses sent word to 
the Spokanes that in retaliation for the death of those 
at Dr. Whitman's the Americans had killed these 
Indians on the Willamette. The statement was made 
to induce the Spokanes to join the hostile Indians. 
As it was in accord with Indian practice the Cayuses 
expected the Spokanes to believe it. Mr. Eells under- 
stood the whole plot quickly and said : "The rumor is 
false and of mischievous tendency." The chief be- 
lieved him, as he also saw through it; but the great 
difficulty lay in inducing all the Indians to believe him. 
The chief, however, sent runners in all directions with 
the words : " Believe not the message. It is not the 
way the Americans do." He said to the mission- 
aries: "Avoid being out after dark; make the door 
fast ; place a strong shutter over the window. If 
there be a call for admittance, delay ; make inquiry. 
By the dialect of the applicant may be determined 
from what band he comes — whether from those well 
or evil disposed." 

It was, however, reasonable to believe that Messrs. 
Walker and Eells would be the especial objects of 
attack. They were compelled to look death squarely 
in the face, and in case it should occur make provision 
for widow and orphans. " Never," says Mr. Eells, 
" has this right hand so reluctantly guided a pen as 



THE MISSION BBOKEN UP. ]31 

when it wrote to Mr. Lewes, then in charge of Fort 
Colville, that in the event of my meeting a violent 
death, he would have the kindness to take charse of 
those thus bereaved, conduct them down the river to 
Fort Vancouver, see them safe upon a Hudson's Bay 
Company's vessel for conveyance to the Sandwich 
Islands, to the care of the mission of the American 
Board there." But He who had twice kept Mr. Eells 
from death now kept death from him. 

Soon after the massacre the government of Oregon 
raised volunteers, chiefly in the Willamette valley, 
who chastised the Cayuses, built Fort Waters at 
Dr. Whitman's station, and drove the Indians out of 
their own country nearly halfway to Tshimakain. Tliis 
brought the enemy so near that there seemed to be 
more danger than before. Mr. Walker went to Fort 
Colville about the first of March to consult in regard 
to their safety. Mr. Lewes said: "Remain quiet at 
the mission as long as you can. If you shall be con- 
vinced of real danger, come to my fort, and I will 
protect you equally with myself and family." 

The Spokane Indians were now showing great 
friendliness. They saw the strong probability of 
losing their teachers. This made them all the more 
friendly. On one Sabbath, about the first of March, 
the chief, on being invited to speak, so exalted the 
excellence of the glorious gospel tliat Mr. Eells said 



132 FATHER EELL8. 

that he would have given five dollars to have had an 
exact copy of the speech. 

But the hostile camp was now only about sixty 
miles from Tshimakain. It began to seem unsafe to 
stay any longer. Mr. Walker and Mrs. Eells were 
constitutionally timid and wished to leave. Mrs. 
Walker had strong nerves, but her six children made 
her cautious. She was on an even poise. Mr. Eells 
was not satisfied that there was danger enough to 
render it necessary to move ; but he alone anchored 
the fourteen persons there, and the responsibility was 
too great. It was decided to leave for Fort Colville. 
So happy were the timid ones at this that notwith- 
standing that it rained when they started and their 
first camp was in the snow, and they did not reach 
Colville until the fourth day, yet the move was made 
without a murmur. 

The next week Messrs. Walker and Eells and 
Edwin Eells, then six years old, returned to Tshima- 
kain to look after what was left. 

There they spent the Sabbath. Towards night a 
war whoop was heard in the timber not far distant. 
It was enough to startle a brave heart, for it proceeded 
from a band of Indians mounted on horses, who were 
rapidly coming nearer. It was impossible to do any- 
thing except to await the result and learn whether 
they were foes or friends. 



THE MISSION BBOKEN UP. 133 

They cast about for means of protection. These 
were slight. As calmly as possible they awaited the 
result. Mr. Walker in after years never could forget 
how that war whoop sounded in his ears — as if 
death by hostile Indians were at hand. As the 
Indians came nearer Mr. Eells first was able to distin- 
guish the horses and then the friendly Spokanes. 

The chief and a large part of his people had moved 
westward from Tshimakain twenty-five miles across 
the Spokane River. From his camp an Indian went 
to hunt strayed horses. In his hunt he stopped at the 
camp of the Cayuse murderers. He found that a few 
of the Cayuses were gone, but could not learn where. 
He suspected that it was to Tshimakain. If so, he 
was certain that it was to murder those there. Con- 
sequently he returned to his people. On his way he 
came upon fresh horse tracks which so strengthened 
his suspicions that he walked all night, reaching camp 
about noon. Quickly he told the chief, who imme- 
diately said : " Young men, catch your horses ; hasten 
to Tshimakain and see how it is with our teachers." 

Twenty-one did so, and with the few weapons at 
hand commenced the ride of twenty-five miles. They 
rushed down the steep hill south of the Spokane so 
rapidly that they left hoof tracks plainly seen several 
days afterward. After they had crossed the river 
they watched closely, expecting to see some woman 



134 FATHER EELLS, 

or child in flight. When about two miles from the 
station they became satisfied that no one had been 
killed, although they believed that hostile Cay uses 
were in the region. Those in the van waited for 
those farther behind ; then they shouted with joy that 
" their teachers were safe," and at the same time to 
let the enemy know, if lurking around, that they must 
let these teachers alone. 

As they suspected that spies were near the mission, 
horses were placed in a pen and locked up, fires were 
kept burning, and a watch during the night. One of 
these Indians, named Charles, was more intelligent 
and less excitable than many. When asked what they 
would have done if they had met the Cayuses with 
evil intent at Tshimakain he replied: "We would 
have fought them." Such acts and statements, with 
others like them, showed evidence of sincere regard 
by those Indians for their teachers. 

The Indians then asked Messrs. Walker and Eells 
to go to their camp to hold a council. The decision 
was, however, that it was better for them first to go 
to Colville, consult with Mr. Lewes, and then return 
for the council. Accordingly the next day they 
started, guarded through the prairie by the Indians. 
Most of these returned by another route after a 
short time, a rather secret route, so that the enemy 
might be led to believe that the teachers were well 



THE MISSION BBOKEN UP. 135 

guarded, but a few of them kept guard all the way to 
Colville. 

It was then decided that Mr. Walker should remain 
at the fort while Mr. Eells should go to the council, as 
Mr. Walker was five years older, considerably more 
infirm, much heavier, and would be a hindrance if they 
should be hard pushed and attempt to flee. Mr. 
Lewes objected to the plan, still it was adopted. A 
sufficient guard of Indians was, however, procured, 
not one who was asked declining. 

True they were now all safe together at the fort, 
where they could remain until it should be safe to go 
elsewhere. But they were not looking out for them- 
selves alone. The work now was to keep the Spo- 
kanes and as many of the neighboring bands as 
possible from joining the enemy, for lying rumors had 
been so spread abroad that even the Indians about 
Fort Colville had become so hostile that Mr. Lewes 
had at one time during the winter kept his fort 
guarded night and day for two weeks. 

When Mr. Eells reached Tshimakain all was quiet 
with no evidence of devastation. From this place 
one half-breed turned back, afraid to go further. He 
was willingly allowed to depart. Such a person would 
be of no use. 

The next afternoon Mr. Eells was at the appointed 
camp. There was a large gathering and all the bands 



136 FATHEB EELLS. 

were represented. Suc-a-tal-ka-ku-sam, the father of 
the present Moses, was there. 

When Mr. Eells asked whether it was wise for him 
to pitch his tent the reply was, " Yes ; the Cayuses are 
afraid of us." 

That night the largest lodge was closely packed. 
When Mr. Eells asked what they wished their reply 
was : " We are loyal to the Americans. We are ready 
to make proof of what we say. AYe are scantily sup- 
plied with arms and ammunition. We wish you to 
write our words to the white chiefs — those wise in 
heart, great in war, and powerful in speech." 

Mr. Eells took a Testament from his pocket and 
asked Ce-lim-klim-a-lak-a-lah and 8uk-a-tal-ka-ku-sam 
to place their hands on it, and in the presence of 
Him whose book it was, to speak truly and faithfully. 
Their faces showed that they knew the meaning of the 
act and words. 

The letter was written and three trusty Indians went 
with it on foot, first westward across the Columbia, 
then south to Fort Walla Walla (now Wallula) where 
they recrossed, and Ah-ma-mel-i-kan, one of their num- 
ber, afterwards the patriarchal leader and preacher, 
took it to Fort Waters at Dr. Whitman's station. At 
that place orders had been given to shoot every Indian 
approacliing the place unless he had a white flag. The 
sentinel saw the Indian coming without a flag, as he 



THE MISSION BROKEN UP. 137 

did not know of the order or custom. The apparent 
fearlessness and innocence of the Indian stayed the 
shot. 

A kind Providence preserved him, but he was told 
that when he should come again on peaceful errands 
he must show a white flag. 

When he returned, though by a less circuitous road, 
Mr. Eells was there again to receive the package. 
For two mouths communications passed constantly 
between him and the military. His work was to cor- 
rect false rumors, quiet fears, and keep the army and 
those at Fort Colville posted. He was mostly on the 
move. When the families had been at Fort Colville 
ten weeks he had been there ten nights. All this time 
he never went armed, believing that he was safer with- 
out arms. He was counseling for peace. He had, 
however, a swift horse, which no Indian could catch, 
and a pack mule which could scent an Indian half a 
mile or more. In camping he selected some secluded 
place, hobbled his horse aud staked the mule. If any 
Indians came within smelling distance, the mule would 
snort and tear, awaken his master and warn him of 
the approach. 

Only two or three times did he feel alarmed. On 
his last trip but one, when at Tshimakain, and ready 
to start for Colville he was induced by Indians, chiefly 
Palouse, to go southward in an opposite direction fifty 



138 FATHEB EELLS. 

miles to near where Sprague now is. The result was 
favorable, for he was enabled to send nine Indians 
and a white man direct to Fort Waters through the 
midst of the enemy's country. In returning he and 
Edwin were alone. He wished for an Indian helper, 
but his Indian goods, with which he had been accus- 
tomed to remunerate them for services while with him, 
had run low. He also thought he would test them, as 
he was now working for them. The result was he and 
his son were alone. While resting at noon an Indian 
with a gun came along. The thought was, Has he 
come to kill us? Each caught a horse as a shield; 
but they were not harmed. 

On reaching the Spokane they found the only canoe 
on their side while all the Indians were on the other 
side. Mr. Eells was not accustomed to paddling a 
canoe and the stream was very swift. They drove 
their horses into the river and the animals swam 
across. Mr. Eells then put baggage and saddles with 
his son into the canoe, took it some distance up, and 
started across. The current was so swift that they 
were carried down an alarming distance only to land 
on the same side from which they had started. An- 
other attempt was made ; again they were carried 
fearfully near the rapids. The Indians saw their 
danger and shouted ; at last when very near the rapids 
they came so close to the banks that Edwin grasped 



THE MISSION BE KEN UF. 139 

a pole which au Indian stretched out and they were 
saved. They caught their riding horses and pack 
mule. AVhile Mr. Eells was saddling one the boy held 
the other two. The mule and then the horse started 
to join other horses near. The boy held on well ; the 
horse kicked, the boy fell. When he was picked up 
his head was very near a rock, which it had barely 
missed, and the foot of the horse had barely missed 
him ; so no bones were broken. 

This journey had, however, delayed them five days 
beyond the time for reaching Colville ; consequently 
those there became so anxious that they sent to learn 
about their safety. After Mr. Eells met this mes- 
senger they rode rapidly, for the son had said : " Let 
us whip up ; mother is anxious." 

The reply came to the last letter which Mr. Eells 
had written to Fort Waters. To meet it Mr. Eells 
made one more trip. The delegation from several 
Indian bands was welcomed ])y the soldiers. That was 
the consummation of what Mr. P^ells had endeavored 
to do. Boldly he had said : "The troops will not harm 
those Indians who do not join the Cayuses." He was 
relieved. 

Then he discharged his Indian helper, as all danger 
was over, and went alone from Tshimakain to Fort 
Colville. There was no occasion for haste, no call 
for courage or energy ; and then his spirits sank to 



140 FATHER SELLS. 

the lowest ebb. He imagined himself dogged by one 
taking advantage of his lone condition. Timidly he 
sought a camp in a secluded place, near Chewelah, not 
even pitching his small tent, but tying his faithful 
horse and mule near his head. He slept soundly and 
his courage revived. 

Mr. Eells went on to the fort, where he arrived May 
26. During the preceding ten weeks he had traveled 
about fourteen hundred miles. Chief Factor John Lee 
Lewes furnished him a paper, unsolicited, giving his 
testimony to his Christian perseverance and praise- 
worthy assiduity amid much personal risk as well as 
bodily fatigue,^ 

On May 28 two Indians brought two letters to the 
fort. One was from Colonel H. A. G. Lee, in command 
of the volunteers. These forces had chased the Cay- 
uses north of Snake River and so far out of the coun- 
try that it seemed useless to pursue them farther, 
although the avengers had not captured and punished 
the murderers as they wished. Colonel Lee wrote : — 

"When we found that it was not expedient to 
pursue the flying Indians farther, we halted. The 
question was asked : Shall we go back to the Willa- 
mette and leave the two mission families of Rev. 
Messrs. Walker and Eells? That could not be thought 
of. They could not look Americans in the face and 
» Annual Report A. B. C. F. M., 1849, p. 203. 



THE MISSION BROKEN UP. 141 

say: *We have left two missionary families in the In- 
dian country in these times.' Volunteers were asked 
for to bring away those families and sixty responded. 
Major Joseph Magone was placed in charge." 

The Other letter was from Major Magone, who stated 
that he would be at Tshimakain on Sunday, May 28, 
— the day the letter was received at Fort Colville, — 
ready to take them out "bag and baggage," provided 
it was best to go. On consultation it was thought best. 
Mr. Lewes had protected them when there was no 
other way, but now he was of the opinion it was best 
to go. 

The next morning Messrs. "Walker, Eells, and a son 
of Mr. Lewes went to Tshimakain, where they arrived 
before sunset — seventy miles. Consultation was had 
until the next day at noon. The Spokane Indians 
were decidedly opposed to their leaving. When the 
fleeing Cayuses had come towards their country the 
Spokanes had sent word that they must not come to 
their lands. The Cayuses replied : "We shall not re- 
gard what you say." Then the Spokanes had prepared 
to fight, though this did not prove necessary. Now 
they said they could protect the mission families. 
They were told that if these families should remain 
and mischief should befall them, their people might be 
involved in trouble. They said that if necessary they 
would take the families with them, even to where they 



142 FATHEB EELLS. 

should dig roots. One Indian, opening his blanket, 
said he would protect them as a mother does her child 
under her blanket. 

The gentlemen started on Tuesday afternoon for 
Colville, where they arrived Wednesday noon. By 
Thursday noon all were ready to leave, and they 
reached Tshimakain on Saturday. The opposition 
from the Spokanes, however, continued to be so strong 
that the missionaries changed their plans of remaining 
there over the Sabbath, crossed the Spokane that night, 
and spent the Sabbath on its south side. June 3, 
1848, they said good-by to the station which had been 
the home of the adults for more than nine years, and 
the birthplace of the two children of Mr. Eells, and 
five of Mr. Walker. Good-by it was forever for 
most of them, Mr. P^ells and his youngest son 
being the only ones of that number who have ever 
revisited it. 

The following lines, written by Mrs. Mary Walker 
for her children, are very appropriately inserted here : 

Tshimakain 1 Oh, how fine 
Fruits and flowers abounding ; 
And the breeze through the trees 
Life and health conferring. 

And the rill, near the hill, 
"With its sparkling water; 
Lowing herds and prancing steeds 
Around it used to gather. 



THE MISSION BnOKEN UP. 143 

And the Sabbath was so quiet, 
And the log-house chapel, 
Where the Indians used to gather 
In their robes and blankets. 

Now it stands, alas I forsaken : 
No one with the Bible 
Comes to teach the tawny Skailu i 
Of Kai-k6-len-s6-tin.2 

Other spots on earth may be 
To other hearts as dear ; 
But not to me ; the reason why 
It was the place that bore me. 

On the Sabbath there was a service in the forenoon 
for the whites, the families sitting upon bales, the 
soldiers on logs. Towards evening Indians came 
about, and Qual-qual-a-hive-tsa said: "We do not 
know when we shall hear you again. "Will j^ou not 
have a service for us?" It was held. The Scripture 
applied, " The people departed, sorrowing most of all 
that they might see our face no more." 

That week took them to Dr. Whitman's station. 
Two Indians, out of affectionate regard, went with 
them to Snake River, and there Charles said to Mrs. 
Eells : " Our hearts weep to see you go, but we acqui- 
esce." The next week took them to The Dalles. From 
this place Mr. Eells took the animals and went over 
the Cascade Mountains by the Barlow route to Oregon 
City, accompanied by the volunteers. The rest went 
» People. 2 God. 



144 FATHER EELL8. 

down the river by water and reached Oregon City June 
22. Mr. Eells arrived two days later, and all were 
ready to listen on the following Sabbath to the preach- 
ing of Rev. G. H. Atkinson, the first person sent by 
the American Home Missionary Society to Oregon. It 
was his first sermon at that place, he having arrived 
during that very week. Colonel Lee then declared the 
upper country closed to American settlers, as the gov- 
ernment could not protect them. Thus it remained, 
until opened by military proclamation in 1859. 

The missions of the American Board in Oregon were 
broken up. Could they be resumed ? The only mis- 
sion in regard to which there was any hope was that 
among the Spokanes. Hoping that the way would 
open for their return, Messrs. Walker and Eells did 
not formally sever their connection with the Board 
for five years. 

The Indians were very anxious to have them 
return, and in 1851 journeyed four hundred and fifty 
miles to Oregon City to obtain teachers. Dr. Dart, 
superintendent of Indian affairs, did what he could 
to aid them, but after thoroughly weighing the matter 
neither Mr. Walker nor Mr. Eells could feel it his 
duty to return ; for, first, there was no adequate pro- 
tection at Tshimakain, and, second, the cost of resum- 
ing and sustaining operations was very great, owing 
largely to the high prices resulting from the discovery 



THE MISSION BROKEN UP. 145 

of gold in California. Mr. Eells calculated that 
transportation would cost ten times as much as pre- 
viously ; indeed, procuring supplies would occupy so 
much time and strength that little would be left for 
missionary operations. Hence in 1855 their connection 
as missionaries with the Board was formall}' dissolved. 
'' This step," wrote Mrs. Eells, " has been very trying 
to my feelings, but I have acquiesced in it, as not 
seeing any other way to do." Yet although thus out- 
wardly released, their hearts were still in the work. 
Mr. Eells made visits to the Spokanes when he could, 
and Mrs. Eells as long as she lived prayed for " the 
aborigines of the country for whom they had labored." 

To bring this whole subject together it may be well 
to anticipate and record later facts about these Indians 
and the results of the missionary work. 

The Indians had been left by their teachers, and 
the question was, Would they return to their former 
practices? Instead of retrogression came advance. 
If not members of the visible church, — and not one 
had been thought fit for church membership, — some 
showed that they were members of the invisible one. 
Several, as if divinely called, took position as leaders 
and teachers. There were public Sabbath services and 
daily worship in their lodges. If the head man were 
absent, another took his place. If the praying men 
were all away, the praying women took their places, 



146 FATHER BELLS. 

Annually some of these Indians were accustomed 
to go to the Willamette, especially to Oregon City, the 
metropolis, for work. Their constancy and apparently 
devout manner of attendance on public worship were 
noticeable. They asked persistently to be supplied 
with religious teachers. 

In the spring of 1850 or 1851, when about to return 
home, they asked with especial earnestness of Dr. 
A. G. Dart, superintendent of Indian affairs, for such 
teachers. He was expecting to visit their region, and 
when they knew this he said: *' They would not 
leave without a promise that one of their former 
teachers would accompany me." Mr. Walker decided 
to do so. 

Notwithstanding all the commotion about Tshima- 
kain in the spring of 1848 the wheat had been sown 
in hope that it might be needed. When the mission- 
aries left in June Mr. Eells gave the Indians the two 
sickles and they were instructed to cut it when it was 
ripe and put it in the barn, and if the missionaries 
did not return before the snow should fall, they might 
thresh and eat it. It was harvested, but the chief 
said it must be kept for the use of tlieir teachers on 
their return. It was used in time of need for seed, 
but was replaced. When they expected Mr. Walker 
to visit them they carried it to Colville, had it ground, 
and brought it back for the use of the party. 



THE MISSION B BO KEN UP. 147 

Dr. Dart and Mr. Walker started accordiog to 
expectation, but were overtaken by a messenger, who 
informed them that Dr. Dart was needed in southern 
Oregon to look after the Indians there, and the trip 
was necessarily abandoned. To the Indians this was 
a great disappointment. 

In 1855 Mr. Eells was living near Hillsborough, 
Oregon. About that time the Colville mines were 
discovered. Among those who went was William H. 
Bennet, one of Mr. Eells' neighbors. When he and 
his party reached the Spokane River they at first 
found no way of crossing. Looking down the river 
they found some Indians, who assisted them. Mr. 
Bennet told them that he was acquainted with 
Messrs. Walker and Eells. Then the Indians' faces 
brightened and they worked with delight. After cross- 
ing it was time to eat. The whites said that since 
the Indians had been so kind they ought to ask the 
chief to eat with them. They did so. When they 
were seated the chief looked as if he were waiting for 
something, the white men could not tell what. When 
they had almost, or quite, begun eating the chief 
bowed his head and asked a blessing. The whites 
were rebuked. When one of them told Mr. Eells 
about it afterwards the narrator said : " Those Indians 
were better Christians than we were." 

The Yakima war of 1855-56 followed, which 



148 FATHEB SELLS. 

extended from Rogue River in southern Oregon to the 
Spokanes on the north; but with them it stopped. 
One of them made himself especially useful to the 
whites in the Indian attack on the Cascades. 

In the war of 1858, which resulted in the defeat of 
Colonel E. J. Steptoe and the campaign of Colonel 
George Wright, the main body of the Spokanes were 
engaged, together with the Palouses, Yakimas, Coeur 
d'Alenes, and Pen d'Oreilles. When the Spokane 
council was held, in which it was decided to unite 
with the other hostiles, Big Star, the chief of that 
band, among whom missionary labor had been mainly 
spent, opposed it as long as he could. When the 
decision was made he drew off with his band, saying 
that he would not fight against the whites.^ Kip, in 
his " Army Life on the Pacific," speaks twice of Big 
Star and says that he talked peace. 

Major P. Lugenbeel was in command of Fort Col- 
ville, that is, the new United States fort, for years. 
He also acted as Indian agent. In 1861 he said to 
Mr. Eells : "Those Indians of yours are the best 
Indians I ever saw. I wish you would go back and 
resume missionary operations among them." 

From 1860 to 1872 Mr. Eells was in the Walla 
Walla valley. In 1862 he revisited Tshimakain for the 
first time and spent a Sabbath there. A large number 

1 Eells' Indian Missions, p. 236. 



THE MISSION BBOKEN UP. 149 

came from within fifteen miles to meet him. Of 
that visit he says: "I made note of the evidence 
of increasing good fruits of mission work. Those 
who had experienced the saving power of the truth 
and Spirit of God were distinguishable. By word 
and deed they showed forth the praises of Him who 
had called them out of darkness into his wonderful 
light." 

During the time he was at Walla Walla a number 
of them came to that region, especially to the Toucliet 
and Walla Walla valleys, and worked for farmers. 
Many often attended the Congregational church at 
Walla Walla. They could not understand the serv- 
ices in English, yet they came to be present even 
at these, for they said that they likod to be there, as 
they knew that God was being talked about. After 
church they remained at Sabbath-school, where Mr. 
Eells gathered them into his class and taught them 
in Indian. This class varied in numbers, the highest 
being thirty-six. 

A pamphlet called "Scripture Cuts," full of Bible 
pictures, was given to them during the early mission- 
ary period. It was very helpful in assisting them to 
remember the Bible. This they carefully preserved 
and often when they had an opportunity asked to 
have these pictures again explained. To help them 
to remember dates a simple chronological chart was 



150 FATHER EELLS. 

made, a long line representing a hundred years, a 
shorter one ten years, and a still shorter one a year. 
Thus the time from the creation to the deluge, to 
the time of Christ, and to the present dates could be 
illustrated. This was kept until May 21, 1868. The 
next day they were to leave Walla Walla. After a 
talk with ten of them at Sabbath-school until four 
o'clock Mr. Eells went home, six miles ; but that 
evening three walked to his house for further instruc- 
tion, and A-ma-mel-i-kan presented that paper, say- 
ing, ^^ Tem-e-icalsW (It has come to pieces). By 
constant use it was literally worn out. A new one 
was prepared and given to them. 

In 1872 Mr. Eells moved to Skokomish, on Puget 
Sound. Before this Rev. H. H. Spalding had returned 
to his work among the Nez Perces, and the years 
from 1871 to 1874 were his most successful ones 
there. When these Spokanes knew not where else 
to turn for instruction they applied to him. He went 
among them in 1874 and without organizing any 
church baptized two hundred and fifty-three. Over a 
hundred more were baptized after his death ; not that 
these were all professing Christians, though many 
were. Another reason brought others to this step. 

In 1871, when President Grant adopted the peace 
policy, the Spokanes were assigned to the Colville 
Agency, which was under the Catholics. There was 



THE MISSION BBOKEN UP. 161 

much effort to induce them to become Catholics, 
especially to be baptized. Some years previous a 
Catholic mission was established about forty miles 
above Tshimakain and a number of converts were 
made ; but the Protestant portion would not accept 
Catholic teachings, and to save themselves from con- 
stant importunity by Catholics some who were not 
real Christians asked for and received baptism. AVhen 
this was done that importunity ceased. Still many 
new ones became Christians, for Mr. Spalding had 
preached earnestly and had also some Nez Perce 
helpers, who assisted him. 

At the Congregational Association of Oregon and 
Washington, held at Olympia, Deacon J. J. McFar- 
land, of Salem, who as millwright liad helped to build 
the first sawmill at Spokane Falls the year before, 
spoke of these Indians. Some of them encamped 
near that place and morning and evening had daily 
called the people together for worship and also for 
two public Sabbath services. William Three Moun- 
tains, or Auts-kai-ope-lea, was their leader. 

Mr. Eells heard this ; he heard something of Mr. 
Spalding's work, and he was drawn as by a magnet 
towards them. So on July 15, 1874, he left Skoko- 
mish on his horse Le Blau, crossed the Cascade 
^Fountains, walking about one third of the way, the 
horse carrying his food and bedding. He went by 



152 FATHER EELLS. 

way of Walla Walla and Colfax. When across the 
Spokane River he saw a lodge of Indians ; he said : 
''Do you know me?" "Yes! yes! Mr. Leels ! " 
was the reply, for that was as correctly as they could 
pronounce his name. 

Soon he met others, and it was arranged that 
he should hold services at Chewelah the following 
Sabbath. While one of them, called Abraham, was 
riding with him, he said : " I think the book of God 
is like a torchlight," this being used by them in the 
dark ; an expression very nearly like the Scripture : 
"Thy word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto 
my path." Two services were held on the Sabbath 
with these Indians, two more with the whites, and all 
within six hours. After this Mr. Eells went to Fort 
Colville to see the Indian agent, J. A. Simms, then came 
back to the Spokane River, where he conducted more 
services, and finally visited the embryo town of Spo- 
kane, where he met Rev. H. T. Cowley, their mission- 
ary and teacher. This mission had, in connection 
with that among the Nez Perces, been taken up by 
the Presbyterians, and they had recently sent Mr. 
Cowley there. It has since been continued by them. 
After that Mr. Eells returned in the same way to 
Skokomish. 

In the summer of 1875 Mr. Eells made a similar 
trip, leaving Skokomish April 29, going on horseback 



THE MISSION BROKEN UP, 153 

to the Columbia River, near Monticello, thence by 
steamer to Portland, and then again by steamer to 
The Dalles. From this place he went by land, 
preaching on the Sabbaths until he arrived at Old 
Fort Colville, ten miles north of the present town, 
and then started on his return. Both going and 
returning he spent considerable time with the Spo- 
kanes, holding twenty-four public services with them. 
Leaving his horse east of the Cascades he returned 
home from Wallula by steamer and cars by way of 
Portland, arriving at home August 27. 

One Sabbath in connection with Mr. Cowley the 
Lord's Supper was administered. Three hundred and 
sixty persons were present at the services, the com- 
municants numbering sixty. Mr. Eells says: *' T 
made note of the propriety of language used in 
prayer." 

Mr. Cowley said that at a late communion service 
one hundred and eight partook of the emblems of 
Christ's body and blood. 

At that time he was requested to give the com- 
munion to an Indian dying with consumption. To 
questions with reference to his views and feelings his 
replies were intelligent and gratifying ; his feelings 
were tender, tears flowed. He said : " I am a sinner, 
but it is to no purpose that I am a sinner, since there 
is One by whom we may live." 



1G4 FATHER EELLS. 

In the summer of 1876 Mr. Eells was asked to 
preach to the whites of Colville and vicinity. He did 
so, giving his Sabbath services largely to them and his 
week days mainly to the Spokanes at various places. 
When with the latter he usually had one service at 
night and another in the morning, and during the day 
administered to the sick. 

At one time, when Mr. Eells was living at Tshima- 
kain, a limb had fallen and badly injured a woman 
on the head, tearing away the skin. Mr. Eells, then 
seven miles distant, was sent for, and dressed and 
sewed up the wound. She and others believed that he 
thus saved her life, though he hardly thought that 
true. During these later years whenever he met her 
she would take him ])y the hand, her lips would move, 
evidently in recognition of the divine favor, but her 
voice was not heard. The last time he met her she 
was about eighty years old and blind, but her tongue 
was loosed, and she said : "It is because of our Maker 
that we are spared. Meeting you is like meeting my 
deceased husband and others," whom she named. " I 
believe," wrote Mr. Eells, "in answer to her prayers 
God's benediction has been upon myself." 

During nineteen weeks of that summer Mr. Eells 
lield forty services with the Indians besides forty more 
with the whites. Their mode of living was much as 
it had been thirty^five years previous, for they lived 



THE MISSION BROKEN UP. 155 

upon fish, roots, and berries, with some wheat and 
garden produce, and consequently were continually 
migrating, as of old. 

No treaty has ever been made with these Indians, 
because they neither wished to go on the Colville Res- 
ervation nor that of Moses. They hoped for one of 
their own, and in waiting many became considerably 
discouraged and demoralized. Some, however, too 
radical to wait, took up homesteads and formed colo- 
nies. One of these was under Chief Lot, with the 
patriarch A-ma-mel-i-kan as their preacher. In 1880 
they had a thousand acres under fence. Another was 
begun by William Three Mountains. This person, 
then about sixteen years old, in 1839 had been in Mr. 
Walker's family. He was cheerful and faithful and 
learned well. After two years of service he left. He 
had learned too well, for the chief wished to excel in 
Scriptural knowledge, and when he found that William 
was surpassing him William was hindered. But he 
was not a Christian when the mission broke up. His 
own account of his conversion, as given to Mr. Eells, 
is as follows: "I understood the teaching of Mr. 
Walker and yourself, but I did not regard it. Subse- 
quently my father died. I heard his dying counsel, 
but I did not regard that. Two years thereafter I 
came to a stand. I turned about. I became another 
person." 



156 FATHEil EELLS. 

The change was noted by many. The date was 
noticeable. It was about 1864, sixteen years after the 
mission families had left, ten years before the great 
reviving under Mr. Spalding. From 1864 to 1883 he 
was an*exemplary Christian, a "burning and shining 
light," earnest in his endeavor to elevate, civilize. 
Christianize his people. He was fearless and faithful. 
Then because he rebuked a drunken half-breed he was 
shot by the latter and died from the wound. 

At the present time there are one hundred and 
twenty-nine of these Spokanes who are members of 
the Presbyterian Church. They are organized into 
two churches, one of which is at Chief Lot's settle- 
ment, about seven miles from Walker's Prairie, and 
the other is near the mouth of the Spokane. Each 
organization has a house of worship. Native Nez 
Perce ministers have preached to them mainly during 
the past five years. 

It is at least certainly true, as Dr. Eells wrote in 
his centennial sketch of the Oregon missions of the 
American Board — even truer now than in 1876 : 
" The earlier and the latter sowing of the seed of gos- 
pel truth among the Spokane Indians has produced 
abundant harvest." 

Rev. L. H. Hallock, in his sermon at the funeral of 
Dr. Eells, said : " Old Indians gathered round him on 
his visit last September, and almost worshiped his 



THE MISSION BE KEN UP, 167 

venerable form. With them beside a fallen tree he 
knelt in prayer, with them he ate a frugal meal upon 
which they had asked God's blessing, as he taught 
them long years ago, and with them he will sing in 
the eternal life unto which he has gone and they 
will come." 



CHAPTER VI. 

IN THE WILLAMETTE VALLEY. 

1848-60. 

MR. EELLS was now safe in the Willamette 
valley, but that valley in 1848 was very 
different from the same valley in 1893. A large popu- 
lation had indeed come since 1838 ; the first regular 
immigration arriving in 1842, the first with wagons in 
1843. After that the immigrants came by the thou- 
sands ; still the United States had not taken possession 
of the country in full. A provisional government, 
temporary until the United States should assume con- 
trol, had been organized in 1843, and the territory 
was still under it. True, the treaty which settled the 
Oregon question had been made in June, 1846, but 
the question of slavery in the territories had delayed 
the organization of the territory of Oregon. On 
account of the Whitman massacre Colonel J. L. 
Meek had been sent to Washington early in 1848, 
but it was not until August 14 of that year that his 
efforts, with those of Judge J. Q. Thornton, were 
successful. Then the territory was organized, and 
General Joseph Lane was appointed governor. He 
arrived in Oregon in 1849. 

168 



IN THE WILLAMETTE VALLEY, 159 

The entire population, except a very few who had 
strayed to Puget Sound after 1845, was in the Willa- 
mette valley. There were five counties in all Oregon, 
Washington , and Idaho — Clackamas , Champoeg, Tuali- 
tin, Yamhill, and Polk — with a voting population of 
1,306. Even in June, 1849, the census gave Oregon 
a population of only 9,083. 

Portland, which now has a population of ninety 
thousand, had then one store, one wharf, and a few 
log houses. East Portland was abandoned as worth- 
less about that time by Hon. D. Shelton, who had 
taken it as a donation claim. Even as late as 
1850 Portland was known as " a place twelve miles 
below Oregon City." This latter place, known as the 
Willamette Falls, with five or six hundred people, 
was in 1848 the social, political, and commercial 
center of the whole region west of the Rocky Moun- 
tains, and its supremacy extended to San Francisco, 
then only a straggling adobe village. 

Astoria, with half a dozen log houses, as many 
sheds, and a pigsty or two ; Plymouth, at the mouth 
of the Willamette ; Muttnomah and Robin's Nest, 
opposite Oregon City ; and Salem, were the other 
towns of Oregon.^ 

The news of the discovery of gold in California, 



1 These are the ones mentioned by Thornton in his "Oregon and 
California." 



160 FATHEB SELLS. 

which had been made iu January, 1848, did not reach 
Oregon until the August after the missionaries had 
reached Oregon City. Money was very scarce, and 
wheat was the common currency. 

There were three Congregational ministers in the 
valley besides Messrs. Walker and Eells : Rev. J. S. 
Griffin, who had come in 1839 as an independent 
missionary to the Indians, but had found the work 
impracticable and had settled near Hillsborough ; Rev. 
Harvey Clark, who had arrived in 1840, with the same 
purpose as Mr. Griffin and with the same result, and 
had settled at Forest Grove ; and Rev. G. H. Atkin- 
son, whose arrival in 1848 has already been mentioned. 
There were also two Presbyterian missionaries, Rev. 
Lewis Thompson and Rev. H. H. Spalding; there 
were two Congregational churches west of the Rocky 
Mountains, one at Hillsborough, organized in 1842, 
Rev. J. S. Griffin, pastor; and one at Forest Grove, 
organized in 1845. The membership of both was prob- 
ably not over twenty. The one at Oregon City had 
been organized in 1844, by Mr. Clark, but by vote of 
its members was Presbyterian. In 1849 it became 
Congregational. It then had a membership of seven. 
The only church building which all of these churches 
then had was a log house at Forest Grove, which was 
also used for a schoolhouse — for Pacific University 
in embryo. 



,. /afl.J^w 




# 



\:§; 



I f 



<'.'^Z\ 






f 



IN THE WILLAMETTE VALLEY. 161 

This was the net total of Congregationalism west of 
the Rocky Mountains in June, 1848 ; in fact, all there 
was of it west of the Mississippi, with the exception 
of twenty-four churches in Iowa and one in Nebraska, 
unless a few had been organized which have since 
disbanded. When Mr. Eells left the Missouri for 
Oregon in April, 1838, there was not a Congregational 
church among the whites west of that river, the first 
one having been organized at Denmark, Iowa, the 
following May. The church among the Indians at the 
Santee Agency in Nebraska is the only existing one 
which dates its organization previous to that time, it 
having been organized in 1836. When Dr. Eells 
died there were 46 Congregational churches in Oregon 
with a membership of 2,962 ; 99 in Washington with 
a membership of 4,085 ; or 153, including 8 in Idaho, 
in the then Oregon, with 7,299 members ; and 3,592 
west of the Mississippi River, with a member- 
ship of 98,610. In fact, previous to 1825, the year 
of Mr. Eells' conversion, there was not a Congrega- 
tional church west of Ohio, and of the 3,592 such 
churches which now exist west of New England only 
63 date their organization before 1810, the year of 
Mr. Eells' birth, of which 53 are in New York, 7 in 
Ohio, 2 in Pennsylvania, and 1 in New Jersey. 

On their arrival in the Willamette valley Mr. Eells 
went to the Aberqua to live until some employment 



162 FATHEB EELLS, 

could be fouud. This was about fifteen miles north 
of Salem. The house was of logs with a puncheon 
floor, — that is, logs split in two and hewed on the split 
side, — without one article of furniture, and so filthy 
that Mrs. Eells wept when she saw its cheerless con- 
dition ; but, on account of the newness of the country, 
it was the best that could be had. Mrs. Eells, 
however, soon chased her tears away, went energetic- 
ally to work, and cleansed it. One bale placed upon 
another and the bass viol box thereon formed a table. 
While there they had only a limited supply of utensils 
with which to keep house. Their largest dish was a 
tin wash basin, and in this Mrs. Eells made bread, 
washed dishes, hands, and the like. The largest 
kettle held about four quarts. In this she baked 
bread, covering it up in the ashes. They had neither 
bed, bedstead, nor chair, only simply their personal 
clothing and bedding, a few small tin dishes, half 
a dozen tin plates, knives, forks, and the like. 

The Methodists, a few years previous, had begun 
the Oregon Institute at Salem, which had developed 
out of the Indian school of their early missions, and 
has since grown into Willamette University. After 
Mr. Eells had been at the Aberqua about four weeks 
Revs. J. H. Wilbur, William Roberts, and A. F. 
Waller, trustees of that institution, invited him to 
take charge of it for six months. As he was waiting 



m THE WILLAMETTE VALLEY. l63 

for further developments in the Indian country and 
had been a successful teacher in the East he thought 
it best to accept the offer. He went there in the fall 
of 1848, being engaged for six months. Mrs. Eells 
assisted in teaching. 

*' Here," says Rev. G. Hines in his "History of 
Oregon and its Institutions," " they exerted an excel- 
lent influence, and contributed much while they re- 
mained to give character and stability to the school." ^ 

These were the hard times for the family. While 
they had been connected with the Board they had 
received no salary. Their expenses alone were paid. 
They had tried to be economical for its sake, and 
hence they found themselves with almost nothing. 

About August, 1848, the news of the discovery of 
gold in California reached Oregon. Prices became 
very high and living very expensive. While at Salem 
it was often bread and molasses for breakfast, black 
New Orleans molasses at that, molasses and bread 
for dinner, and bread and molasses for supper. The 
Board finally gave them the personal property which 
they held for it, such as horses and mules, but it was 
fully a year after their arrival in the Willamette valley 
before they could live comfortably. 

While they were teaching, the Congregationalists, 
mainly through the efforts of Rev. H. Clark and 
1 Page 228. 



164 FATEEB EELLS, 

Rev. G. H. Atkinson, were laying the foundations of 
Tualitin Academy and Pacific University. The Con- 
gregational brethren thought that Mr. Eells ought to 
labor in his own denomination. They urged him to 
take charge of this school at Forest Grove, saying 
that it must go down unless he should do so. He 
finally consented, and in 1849 removed to that place, 
remaining there about two years. Mrs. Eells assisted 
in the schoolhouse one third of the time. 

A school had been begun at this place by Mrs. 
Tabitha Brown as an orphan asylum. At the first 
annual meeting of the Congregational and Presby- 
terian Association, held at Oregon City, September, 
1848, it had been voted to found an academy under 
their patronage, and it had been located at Forest 
Grove. It had absorbed the orphan asylum, which 
had grown to quite a size on account of the exit of 
a large number of men to the gold mines of Cali- 
fornia, whose children were left here. It was incor- 
porated in 1849, as Tualitin Academy. April 4 of 
that year the school began under Mr. Eells in a log 
house twenty by thirty feet, and twelve feet high, with 
puncheon seats and desks. A log was split in two, 
the split side was hewed as smoothly as possible, one 
half being used for the seat, and the other half 
fastened to the wall as a desk. The floor also con- 
sisted of puncheons, but with large cracks between 



m THE WILLAMETTE VALLEY. 165 

them, one of them at least so large that the writer, 
then a small boy, was able to put his foot through. 
It had a batten door, and the logs were so cut away as 
to receive a few panes of glass for windows. Thus they 
helped to lay the foundations of what is now Pacific 
University. There were then about fifty scholars there. 

Mr. Eells thought of preaching, but such was the 
condition of the country that, as Mrs. Eells wrote, 
*'a common laboring man could obtain about twice 
as much for a day's work as an educated man could 
for teaching, and a minister must get his raiment by 
the sweat of his brow almost as much as if he had 
no calling. This was owing partly to the distance 
the people lived from each other, partly to the gold 
fever which took oft" a great proportion of all classes 
of men, and partly to the want of proper apprecia- 
tion of the worth of education and ministerial labor." 
The only way in which he could have engaged directly 
in ministerial labor and have been supported was to 
enter the service of the American Home Missionary 
Society. But this would have necessitated severing 
his connection with the Board, and he was still w^aiting 
to see if that were wise. 

Wages and prices at this time were about as fol- 
lows : The men who built Tualitin Academy received 
from five to ten dollars a day. A mere boy could 
get three or four dollars a day. Cotton sheeting 



166 FATHER EELLS. 

was twenty or twenty-five cents a yard ; inferior 
calico twenty-five cents ; wheat in the field a dollar 
and a half a bushel ; flour eight to ten dollars a hun- 
dred ; potatoes three dollars a bushel ; onions fifty 
cents a dozen ; apples the same, and dried apples 
from sixty-two to seventy-five cents a pound. For 
teaching Mr. Eells received six dollars a scholar per 
term of three months, thus obtaining about six hun- 
dred dollars a year, and from it he gave during three 
years forty, fifty, and one hundred dollars a year 
for preaching. He also superintended a flourishing 
Sabbath-school of fifty scholars. 

After he had taught nearly two years such diffi- 
culties arose that he resigned ; but soon an earnest 
request came from Rev. J. S. Griflfln to teach in his 
neighborhood, about eight miles from Forest Grove. 
Mr. Griffin had just completed a good schoolhouse, 
the best local schoolhouse in the region, and for sev- 
eral years a model for others built in the surrounding 
country. This invitation was accepted, and for four 
years that was the scene of his labors. In August, 
1851, he moved into a part of Mr. Griffin's house 
and lived there for fifteen months. Then finding a 
donation claim of six hundred and forty acres for 
sale near by, and wishing a hoi^ie of his own, he 
bought it for fifteen hundred dollars. This was his 
home for nearly five years. 



m THE WILLAMETTE VALLEY. 167 

In 1855 Mr. Eells received dismissal from the 
American Board. It had authorized him and Mr. 
Walker to return to Tshimakain if the way should 
seem open, without further correspondence, though 
they said they did not wish to break it open. It had 
ur2;ed Mr. Eells to go as a missionary to the Sand- 
wich Islands. He would have done so willingly 
had he been a few years younger, but he felt that 
at his age it was not wise to try to learn a new 
language. In the judgment of his ministerial breth- 
ren he could do more good by remaining in Oregon 
and laboring for the whites than by entering any 
foreign field. 

Of spiritual privileges Mrs. Eells wrote, November, 
1856: "I think we can truly say we hunger and 
thirst after righteousness, but we do not sit under the 
droppings of the sanctuary. There are many tran- 
sient preachers, but very few places where a stated 
ministry is enjoyed. A large proportion of the people 
are from the Western States, and do not know the 
worth of a settled ministry. They somehow seem to 
feel that once a month is as often as they wish to hear 
any one man, be he ever so good a preacher." 

Having taught in Mr. Griffin's schoolhouse for four 
years, he afterwards taught at Hillsborough, and in 
the North Tualitin plain for two years more. At 
the same time he preached, as he found opportunity, 



168 FATHER EELLS. 

within eight miles' radius, two, three, and sometimes 
four times a month. He rarely, however, received 
pay for so doing. For several years five dollars 
given him by Elder Weston, a Baptist minister, was 
all that he received for these services. 

While thus engaged an earnest call came for him 
to return to Forest Grove as principal of Tualitin 
Academy. That school, rechartered in 1854, as Tuali- 
tin Academy and Pacific University, after various 
vicissitudes, felt that he could serve it better than 
any one else who could be obtained. He deemed it 
wise to accept the offer, and removed again to Forest 
Grove in 1857 and began teaching about Novem- 
ber 1. The engagement was for three years, either 
party having the privilege of terminating by giving 
a few months' notice. The school received new life, 
and flourished more than it had for a long time. His 
relations with the professors were cordial, his church 
privileges abundant, and the family ever looked back 
to the place as in reality a home, because of the con- 
geniality of spirit in those with whom they were 
associated ; Mr. Walker and family, their old asso- 
ciates in the Indian work, President 8. H. Marsh, and 
Professor II. Lyman being among them. 

As a teacher Mr. Eells was considered quite strict, 
and very watchful even when his back was turned, so 
that his pupils sometimes said that he had eyes in the 



m THE WILLAMETTE VALLEY. 169 

back of his head. On this point Miss S. I. Lyman 
gives the following in The Pacific : — 

"Many incidents survive of Dr. Eells' teaching 
days. One I will relate which was told to me by the 
chief actor herself, a pupil in his school at Forest 
Grove. Said she : ' I remember how Mr. Eells got 
ahead of me once. We were required to write com- 
positions every two weeks. As I was a fluent writer 
I was often called upon to get up compositions for the 
duller ones, all this being unknown to any one but 
myself and the one helped. I adapted my writing as 
far as possible to the supposed ability of the one I 
assisted, and so escaped detection. There was a very 
dull girl in the school, who really could not write an 
essay to save herself. She came to me for help, and 
I good-naturedly complied, writing as nearly as I could 
the way she would write, which was not very well. 

The time came and K arose to read her essay. 

She was about halfway through when Mr. Eells 
stopped her, and with that stern, measured voice said, 

"K , did you write that composition?" " No, sir," 

said poor K in a trembling voice. "Who did 

write it?" "C M ," replied K , point- 
ing to me. "C M ! Well, you read your 

composition," said Mr. Eells, fixing his eyes on me. 
With burning face and faltering tongue I arose, 
and amid the laughter of my schoolmates read a 



170 FATHER EELLS. 

composition of very iuferior quality. It is needless 
to say that I never ventured to help any one again 
to the extent of writing her compositions.' " 

During this time the Congregational church was 
erected at that place, at a cost of about seven thou- 
sand dollars, the membership being forty. Before it 
was finished Mr. I^ells had given nine hundred dol- 
lars, including the lots on which it stands. A debt 
remained. It was desired to dedicate it free of debt. 
The proposition was made to as many as felt inclined 
to pay this debt, according to the taxable property of 
each member. A few were ready, Mr. Eells being 
one of them ; with what Mrs. Eells gave their total 
donation for the erection of this church was eleven 
hundred and fifty dollars. 

Mrs. Eells also worked hard for the same object. 
The builder said that the pulpit ought to be furnished 
with sofa, carpet, plush velvet for a cushion, and 
trimming around the stand. He told Mrs. Eells that 
it would fall to her share to obtain this. Mr. Eells 
said that the purses had already been so severely 
taxed that he thought it would be hard to obtain the 
fifty dollars needed ; for four men had already given 
about four thousand dollars for the building. Some 
said they must go without sofa and carpet ; some said 
one thing, and some another. In two days' canvass- 
ing Mrs. Eells obtained thirty -two dollars from the 



m THE WILLAMETTE VALLEY. 171 

ladies. Mr. Eells added ten more, and with her 
eldest son Mrs. Eells went to Portland, twenty-two miles 
distant, with provender for their horses and lunch 
for themselves for three days. Through rain and 
mud they traveled until they reached their destina- 
tion. Mrs. Eells, almost fifty years old, was so tired 
she could hardly walk straight. The required articles 
were obtained for the forty-two dollars. 

At this time Mrs. Eells desired deeply to lay the 
foundation of a professorship in Pacific University, 
and proposed to give fifty acres of her share of the 
donation claim near Hillborough for this purpose. Mr. 
Eells thought it might not be wise to divide the claim 
in the way it might be necessary to do were the fifty 
acres thus given. He took the laud and gave a block 
in Forest Grove in its stead, worth at that time much 
more. It was so given that the income should not be 
used until, by compound interest, it should amount to 
enough to support a professorship. The property has 
been carefully handled, and at the time of Dr. Eells 
death it was worth about twelve thousand dollars. 
When given it was valued at five hundred dollars ; in 
1893, one fourth remained unsold and that was valued 
at about three thousand dollars. 



CHAPTER VII. 

WHITMAN SEMINARY. 

1860-82. 

He who plants, or aids in planting, a Christian Hcliool of 
Learning, may be sure that his agency shall yield beneficent 
fruits, ever more accumulating, till the knowledge of Christ shall 
be complete in the hearts of men. — Hammond. i 

"TTTHILE thus at work Mr. Eells felt as if the 
* ^ AVillamette were not his home. His eyes con- 
tinually turned east of the Cascade Mountains, a region 
to which he had given his life. The Yakima war had 
occurred in 1855-56 ; other troubles were quelled in 
1858, and in 1859 a military proclamation opened the 
country to settlers. During all this time the American 
Board owned stations at Waiilatpu, Lapwai, and Tshi- 
makain, and Messrs. Walker and Eells held a power of 
attorney to attend to its business with reference to these 
places. When the country was declared open Mr. 
Eells turned his eyes thither and in 1859 he made a 
vacation journey there, partly to attend to the interests 
of the Board and partly because his own wish drew 
him. At Walla Walla he visited the old mission sta- 
tion and the great grave which contained the remains 

» Found on a Drury College map of Missouri, which was among Dr, 
Eells' papers after his death. 

172 



WHITMAN SEMINARY, 173 

of Dr. Whitman, his wife, and nine others. Mr. Eells 
thought of all the work among the Indians and how 
it had terminated ; he remembered what Dr. Whitman 
had done to save the country to the United States ; 
the past, the then present, and the future came to 
mind. He afterwards said : " I believe that the power 
of the Highest came upon me." 

He felt that something ought to be done in honor of 
the martyrs. However much he believed that a monu- 
ment of stone ought to be erected, yet he felt that if 
Dr. Whitman were alive, he would prefer the monu- 
ment to be a high school for the benefit of the youth 
of both sexes of the region. He had previously 
thought of this. Now by that grave he solemnly 
promised that he would do what he could for that 
object. He determined to move to the place. 

While there he preached the first Protestant sermon 
utterred in Walla Walla City, and on his way home 
assisted Rev. W. A. Tenney in organizing the Congre- 
gational church at The Dalles, the first one east of the 
Cascade Mountains. 

On reaching home he sought the advice of the Con- 
gregational Association. Its approval was given in 
these words : " In the judgment of this Association the 
contemplated purpose of Brother C. Eells to remove 
to Wai-i-lat-pu to establish a Christian school at that 
place, to be called the Whitman Seminary, in memory 



174 FATHER EELL8. 

of the noble deeds and great worth, and in fulfillment 
of the benevolent plans, of the lamented Dr. Whitman 
and wife ; and his further purpose to act as a home 
missionary in the Walla AValla valley, meet our cordial 
approbation, and shall receive our earnest support." 

Dr. Eells gave the necessary notice for the termina- 
tion, about the first of March, 1860, of the agreement 
between himself and the Trustees of Tualitiu Acad- 
emy, about eight months previous to the end of his 
three years. He taught through the winter. 

His hope was that while waiting and working for 
the seminary he might do ministerial work in the 
Walla Walla valley. Application was accordingly 
made to the American Home Missionary Society for a 
commission and support. But that society declined, 
stating that there were not funds to support so expen- 
sive a mission ; that its business was to foster preach- 
ing and to build up churches, and not to build semina- 
ries and colleges, and they must not do indirectly 
what they could not do directly. 

Mrs. Eells said : " Are you not released from your 
obligation in view of that disappointment?" He 
replied : " I have not done what I can." He did not 
abandon the work, but he changed the plan. He saw 
no other means for the accomplishment of his object 
than to labor with his hands as Paul did, not at tent- 
making, but at corn-raising and farming. During the 



WHITMAN' SE3IINABY, 175 

winter of 1859-60, mainly through the efforts of 
Hon. J. C. Smith, at Mr. Eells' request, a charter was 
obtained for Whitman Seminary from the Washington 
Territorial Legislature. Mr. Eells had offered to the 
American Board a thousand dollars for its station at 
Waiilatpu, containing six hundred and forty acres, 
and the offer had been accepted. 

Not having much money at hand, as he had given 
so much to assist in building the church at Forest 
Grove, he borrowed a yoke of oxen from Dr. William 
Geiger, and with his own span of horses and wagon 
he left home for Walla Walla, March 10, 1860, with 
his older son, then eighteen years of age. They went 
by steamer to The Dalles, and then hitching the horses 
ahead of the cattle to the wagon they went to Walla 
Walla overland, one hundred and seventy-five miles, 
hauling their farming implements and provisions for 
the summer. They reached their destination March 26. 

In 1860 the Walla Walla region was very thinly 
populated. 

The country had been organized in 1854 and 
included all Washington between the Cascade and 
Rocky Mountains, from the forty-sixth to the forty- 
ninth parallel, except Klikitat and a part of Ska- 
mania counties ; but that organization availed nothing, 
as the region was too dangerous for whites. Then 
came the Yakima war of 1855-56 with the battle of 



176 FATHEB EELLS. 

Walla Walla and Colonel Wright's campaign of 1858, 
by which the Indians had been so thoroughly con- 
quered that the country was safe. 

In January, 1859, county officers had been appointed 
and the organization took effect. 

In 1859 and 1860 a few people, chiefly men with 
stock, had settled along the streams, though but very 
few had come to make permanent homes, as the land, 
except on the streams, was supposed to be worthless 
for agricultural purposes. There was too no market 
except at the garrison, as wheat would not pay the 
expense of raising and shipment. Neither were there 
any flour mills in running order ; flour had to be 
brought from Portland or else ground by hand in large 
coffee mills. Walla Walla, which in 1892 had a pop- 
ulation of about ten thousand, was then a small 
village with five families and about a hundred men. 
It had received its name only during the previous 
November. 

Late in 1860 the gold mines of Orofino in Idaho 
were discovered, the next year those of Florence ; 
then a great rush into this region occurred, and affairs 
assumed a different aspect. 

The summer of 1860 was spent by Mr. Eells and 
son alone in a log house fourteen feet square 
with the ground for a floor, and dirt upon logs for a 
roof. They worked during the week, and on the 



WHITMAN SEMINABY. 177 

Sabbath Mr. Eells would generally go from five to ten 
miles and preach at different places in the valley. On 
one Sabbath while preaching in Walla Walla the noise 
of teams and freight wagons was so great that he had 
to suspend the services until they had passed. 

That summer the Fourth of July was celebrated for 
the first time in that valley. Dr. Eells' account is as 
follows : — 

"The Fourth of July, 1860, was approaching. 
Major Massey said : ' Ought we not to be a little 
patriotic ? Should we not observe the Fourth of July ? ' 
That had never been done in the valley. I made no 
reply. After hearing him I thought it over and con- 
cluded to encourage the observance of that day. The 
following week I made a circuit of the neighborhood 
and spoke favorably in regard to its proper observance. 
Not long after as I returned from the field, with hoe in 
hand, Major Massey arrived at my house. ' You set 
the ball rolling,' said he, ' and now you must abide 
the consequences.' ' I beg your pardon,' said I ; ' I 
did not set the ball rolling. I gave it impetus after it 
was started.' 

"There had been a consultation and they agreed 
that I must be the orator. I was without books or 
paper, and to prepare a Fourth of July oration seemed 
to me not easily to be done. Further, my conveniences 
for writing were not favorable. I borrowed a book 



178 FATHEB EELL8. 

and obtained paper. For a table I used a box three 
feet in length, eighteen or twenty inches high, and 
about that widtli, and for a chair sat upon a block. 1 
wrote an address. Rev. H. H. Spalding was on the 
Touchet. He was invited to serve as chaplain. Tlie 
location chosen was a little south of the line dividing 
Oregon and Washington, near the foot of the Blue 
Mountains. On the Fourth of July, 1860, a congre- 
gation assembled." 

The summer's work, chiefly a crop of corn, brought 
over seven hundred dollars ; enough to pay for nearly 
three fourths of the place. In the fall they returned 
to Forest Grove, where they wintered. 

On December 17, 1860, occurred the first trustees' 
meeting of Whitman Seminary. The simple record 
in the journal of Mr. Eells is: "Messrs. Hatch and 
Atkinson arrived at night. A harmonious meeting 
of the trustees of Whitman Seminary." Mr. Hatch, 
however, was not a trustee. There and then the 
board was organized, and the seminary located at the 
Whitman Mission. Mr. Eells was chosen President 
of the board, a position he held until the close of his 
life, more than thirty -two years. 

On account of the scattered condition of the 
trustees it was very difficult in early days to secure 
a quorum at any place. Of the original nine trustees 
two, James Craigie and John C. Smith, were residents 



WHITMAN SEMINABY. 179 

of the Walla Walla valley ; Rev. W. A. TeiiDey was 
at The Dalles ; Deacou E. S. Joslyn was at White 
Salmon on the Columbia River, about halfway between 
The Dalles and Cascades ; Rev. G. H. Atkinson was 
at Oregon City, soon afterwards at Portland ; Rev. 
H. H. Spalding at Brownsville, Oregon; Rev. E. 
Walker and Deacon E. S. Tanner at Forest Grove ; 
and Mr. Eells all along the line from Forest Grove to 
Walla Walla. 

It is not strange that Rev. P. B. Chamberlain, in 
his address on ' ' The Early History of Whitman Semi- 
nary," June 3, 1888, when the fiftieth anniversary of 
Dr. Eells was celebrated at Whitman College, in 
speaking of the residence of these trustees whose 
homes extended along three or four hundred miles 
of difficult and extensive travel, and of those early 
trustees' meetings said: "Surely no infant ever so 
sprawled in his most awkward attempts at creeping. 
The efforts to secure a meeting or even a quorum of 
a board thus scattered were often trying if not ludi- 
crous. If one or two from here could be induced to 
go to The Dalles and the one at Portland meet them 
there with those residing there, a quorum could be 
secured. If some from The Dalles and some from 
Forest Grove could be convened at Portland, again 
a quorum w^as obtained. Or as a last resort one start- 
ing from here and picking up another at The Dalles 



180 FATHER EELLS, 

and still another at Portland and proceeding to Forest 
Grove with the two there, a quorum was the result." 

In March, 1861, the family again separatea as in 
1860 for the season, Mrs. Eells and the younger 
son being left at Forest Grove. That fall Mr. Eells 
returned to that place, but left his older son to take 
care of the farm at Walla Walla. A good family, 
C. H. Adams, wife and five children, and another 
young man wintered there with him — eight in all — in 
a house fourteen feet square with the ground for the 
floor and a dirt roof. It was a severe winter. Snow 
lay on the ground from December to March ; the 
mercury fell to 29° below zero ; almost all cattle died ; 
the ground floor in the house froze and thawed around 
the fire and made mud ; water froze in the drinking 
cup on the table at meals between drinks ; Mr. Eells' 
son and another young man slept in a large freight 
wagon all winter, never taking off their clothes for 
seventy-two nights. 

In the spring of 1862 Mr. Eells again went to 
Walla Walla and on to Lewiston to look after the 
mission station at Lapwai in the interest of the 
American Board. Believing, however, that it was 
best for the whole family to be together, Mr. Eells 
went down the Columbia and out to Forest Grove 
for the family. Mrs. Eells yielded with regret. To 
others the arrangement likewise seemed regrettable. 



WHITMAN SEMINABT, 181 

Professor W. D. Lyman, in speaking of this event 
after Dr. Eells' death, says: "Well do I remember, 
though not more than eight years old, the depart- 
ure of the Eells family for Walla Walla, then a 
mysterious, far-away region, haunted by savages and 
mixed up with glowing accounts of fabulous mines 
and gold bricks and rich diggings. The little town of 
Forest Grove was all astir with the great event of the 
departure of Father Eells for the ' upper country.' 
When everything was packed and ready — and I remem- 
ber with what activity he hurried about here and there 
with his boxes and bundles — he looked about on the 
little company of tearful neighbors — men, women, 
and wondering cliildren — all of whom had known 
what the privations of that pioneer life were, and in 
his slow, solemn manner called on several to lead in 
prayer and then to sing. It must have seemed to 
one old enough to understand it almost like the part- 
ing of Paul from his disciples when they sorrowed 
most of all because that they should see his face no 
more. And indeed it might almost have seemed the 
same to those from whom Father Eells was then part- 
ing. For the sanguinary records of Walla Walla, the 
deeds of blood that had before driven the mission- 
aries out, made it seem to some of them almost like 
tempting Providence to go back so soon," ^ 
1 Whitman Collegian, Marcli, 1893. 



182 FATHER EELLS, 

When they arrived at AValla Walla after a dusty 
wagon journey of one hundred and seventy-five miles, 
although a better log house had been built, still the 
conditions and outlook were anything but satisfactory 
to Mrs. Eells. She afterward said that if she could 
then have been permitted to return to Forest Grove, 
three hundred miles, she would have been tempted to 
make the journey on foot, yes, on her hands and 
knees. As long as she stayed there — ten years, 
from her fifty-seventh to her sixty-seventh year — 
the life, the lonely farm work, and the want of society 
were ever uncongenial to her. But her great object in 
remaining was to aid her husband in his work, for she 
had the same martyr heroism that he had. They 
stayed on and did the work which God had for them 
to do. It was such trials as these which our fathers 
and mothers have borne to plant Christian institutions 
in this land. 

The way did open immediately for proceeding with 
Whitman Seminary. The valley was filling up with 
settlers. The first plan had been to build the Semi- 
nary at the Whitman Mission and have a small, re- 
tired, but moral, educated, and religious town grow up 
around it, leaving the bulk of business and population 
to go to Walla Walla, six miles distant. Mr. Eells 
could not at first easily give up this idea of having 
the school near the grave and the scene of the 



WHITMAN SEMINAEY. 183 

labors of Dr. Whitman. But as the country settled 
it seemed as if the original idea would not be the 
wisest plan. 

As Mr. Eells had opportunity he continued preaching 
without recompense and aided in general educational 
work. He, however, sometimes felt that his abilities 
as a minister were small, for he realized that his want 
of ministerial study while busied in missions had pre- 
vented him from developing as he could have done had 
he been engaged in more direct ministerial work. 
Hence he thought that he could accomplish more by 
giving moral and pecuniary support to some abler 
minister than himself. Accordingly he gave largely 
to induce Rev. P. B. Chamberlain to go to Walla 
Walla in 1863. For several years he contributed a 
hundred dollars a year to support liim and to build 
a church there. Himself, his wife, and his older son 
were three of the seven members of the church when 
it was organized, January 1, 1865. This was the first 
Congregational church in Washington Territory, 
although the territory had then been organized for 
nearly twelve years, and had a population of about 
seventeen thousand.^ When Mr. Chamberlain visited 
Walla Walla to see whether it would be wise to locate 
there he was in doubt, but when he was met by Mr. 
Eells, whose field he half thought he was invading, 

1 In I860, 11,594 and in 1870 23.955. 



184 FATHER EELLS. 

with such cordiality and the offer of a hundred dollars 
a year he decided to come. 

Mr. Chamberlain built the first church with his own 
means, but on July 11, 1868, it was burned, and he 
was not able to rebuild it without help, nor was it 
right for him to do so. Consequently subscription 
papers were circulated, and before everything was 
finished Mr. Eells had given eight hundred and sixty 
dollars to it. It was dedicated October 25, 1868. 

Those were the days of horse-stealing and vigilance 
committees, and Mr. Eells lived in their midst. In 
1862, when moving to Walla Walla, his sons being 
with the horses about two miles from The Dalles, 
about midnight they were awakened by the barking of 
their dog, and a man rode up. When asked what he 
wanted, he said plainly that he was hunting horses. 
Undoubtedly he was, but he concluded that those 
were not the ones he wanted — just then. 

During the summer of 1862 Mr. Eells put the horses 
in a yard every night and his sons slept by them until 
fall, when a stable was finished, where the liorses 
could be locked up securely. 

In the daytime Mr. Eells intended to keep his horses 
in sight when they were turned out for grass. One 
day they went out of sight into the bushes on Mill 
Creek. He started after them immediately, went 
where he had last seen them, then on the road, across 



WHITMAN SEMINABY, 185 

the creek, and through all the bushes to the open 
country beyond, listening for them ns he went along. 
They were neither to be seen nor heard. Returning 
through the bushes he again listened and at last heard 
a little rustle, when he turned to the place and found 
them all and a man on one of them. He had managed 
to keep them very still when Mr. Eells first passed, 
and their noise was very slight as he returned. "Is 
— is this your horse?'* said the man. Mr. Eells said 
it was. "That — that man sent me after them and 
said they were his," said the man. " AVhat man?" 
said Mr. Eells ; but the thief could not tell. In the 
meantime he slipped off and went away. Some said 
Mr. Eells would have done better if he had caught 
the man and lost the horse, rather than to have lost 
the man and saved the horse. But Mr. Eells was not 
armed and the thief motioned as if he were, and Mr. 
Eells was so glad to get the horses that when alone 
he did not think it best to make too much effort to 
capture the rascal. 

The Vigilance Committee was at work during 1865 
and 1866. Horse-stealing and similar crimes had 
become so rife that the people could bear no more. 
Mr. Eells was not a member of it, but only because 
he was too old. His oldest son was (his youngest son 
was away at school), and all knew that the father's 
sympathies were with the committee, for it seemed 



186 FATHER EELLS. 

tluit there was no safety in any other resource. Rev. 
Myron Eells, in "An Old Settler's Story" in The 
Tacoma Ledger, ^ gives the following items: — 

" The first man — a horse thief — was shot in April, 
1865, on our place across the Walla Walla River, 
not much more than half a mile from our house. His 
name was Sanders. He lived about two miles from us. 
I heard the shots, but thought nothing of them until 
afterward when he was found in the bushes. It seemed 
hard, as he left a family, but he was undoubtedly very 
guilty, and his brothers-in-law, who were members of 
the Vigilance Committee, took care to see that their 
sister did not suffer. The captain, as was supposed, of 
the whole organization, William Courtney, lived about 
two miles from us ; in fact, we were surrounded by 
vigilantes, and they were good, brave, determined men. 
They waited for the law to do what it ought to until 
long after patience ceased to be a virtue, and then 
they went to work. The courts would sometimes con- 
vict, but the blacklegs elected the sheriff, and if it 
were winter and the rascals had nothing to live on, 
they would stay till spring and get out ; but if it were 
summer, they would sta}' a few weeks in jail and then 
say good-by. For a thne it seemed dou])tful whether 
the vigilantes would win or not, for there were about 
four hundred on each side, and the blacklegs had 

1 Weekly Ledger, August 12, 1892. 



WHITMAN SEMINABY. 187 

spies among the vigilantes ; but after a time a new 
organization was made by them of men who could 
be trusted, and they quietly went to work, took one 
man out of bed and hanged him, then hanged six 
or eight more, and soon about seventy-five of the 
worst blacklegs left the valley and it became safe 
for honest men to walk the streets of Walla Walla 
in daylight, which had not been the case for some 
time previous. 

"The next summer m}^ brother and I slept with a 
loaded shotgun on one side of our bed and a loaded 
revolver under our heads. I well remember the last 
man that was hanged. It was after my return home. 
He came to the house and wanted to stay all night, 
saying that he had been there about the time of the 
Whitman massacre. My brother was away at that 
time and father had to go soon after he came, for 
he had engaged to deliver an address that evening 
some six miles distant. Only mother and I were left. 
While I was attending to the chores I gave him some 
lectures about the massacre, which had been recently 
delivered by Rev. H. H. Spalding, and he read them. 
At night we had a long talk about the massacre, for 
I hoped to get some new items about it, but I learned 
nothing except what was in those lectures. At night 
I gave him my room and bed and went upstairs to 
sleep, but first — I never knew why, except on general 



188 FATHEU EELL8. 

principles, for I did not. then mistrust him to be a tliiof 
— I went in, locked my trunk, and also took my revol- 
ver, leaving, however, the belt and a sheath knife in 
the belt. The next morning after breakfast I went 
off to take care of some horses. 

" The man went into the room and stayed some time, 
as my mother told me, and then left before I returned. 
While I was gone I began to think, and wondered if 
there were anything there that he could steal, and could 
think of nothing he would probably take except that 
knife. As soon as I went home I went and looked to 
see if it were there, but it was gone, althougli the belt 
was left. I missed nothing more until Sunday, when 
I found tliat he had taken a silk handkerchief from 
my Sunday coat. I was lucky to lose so little. I 
afterward learned that previous to this he had had a 
row in a camp, stolen some things and burned the 
camp, and that soon after he stayed with us the vigi- 
lantes ordered him to leave the valley, but he would 
not do so. Then they marched him out, but in a 
short time he was back again, and the next thing that 
was known about him was that he was found hanged. 
He was believed to be a spy, sent by the blacklegs to 
see whether it were safe for them to return or not. 
They found it was not." 

In November, 1864, the proper time arrived to go 
forward with the seminary. The original idea of 



WHITMAN SEMIKARY. 189 

having it at the Whitman mission was abandoned 
from force of circumstances, and it was relocated 
" at or near the city of Walla Walla." 

Rev. Mr. Chamberlain, in the address already re- 
ferred to, gives this description of the work : — 

''Five years thus passed after the school was char- 
tered before it was permanently located, and even then 
it was ' only on paper,' if not ' a castle in the air,' for 
as yet it had no abiding place, no settled habitation. 
Having broadly located it ' at or near the city of 
Walla Walla,' then commenced a wearisome, perplex- 
ing struggle to find a desirable and obtainable site ; 
for, being only beggars forced to secure grounds as 
a donation, we could not summarily take our pick 
according to our real preference. Several different 
locations came up for consideration and were care- 
fully canvassed by the trustees. 

"One was where Judge Lasater's residence now 
stands and another on Second Street where Is now 
the wood yard. All of these sites were then vacant 
and desirable, but in each case there were found to 
be peculiar difficulties involved. Some conditions 
weighed against the first. The second was upon 
A. B. Roberts' homestead claim, having still some 
years to run, and hence at the time could not be 
deeded to the trustees. The third was upon the claim 
of Mr. Shauble, whose wife was for some years 



190 FATHEM EELL8. 

meDtally disqualified to affix her signature to any legal 
document. On all sides, therefore, circumstances were 
adverse ; and after almost unlimited planning, wait- 
ing, working, possibly worrying, all of these sites were 
abandoned and the present location finally decided upon 
and formally adopted in May, 1866. Seven years were 
thus consumed in sticking the first stake of Whitman 
Seminary." 

This location of four acres was donated by Dr. 
D. S. Baker, on certain conditions. The gift was 
afterwards increased to six acres, and the title made 
secure. Steps were immediately taken to erect a 
building twenty by forty-six feet, two stories high. 
It was built during the summer, and so far finished 
in tlie fall that the following posters were billed 
through the tow^n : — 

DEDICATION 
OF 

WHITMAN SEMINARY 

On Saturday, October 13, at 1 P.M. 

Thejmhlic are invited to attend. 

Rev. p. B. Chamberlain delivered the address. He 
spoke of monuments in general ; that the most ancient 
were quite rude, but were followed by those of high 
architectural skill. Of late years, he said, the useful 
had been combined w^ith the ornamental, as was seen 



WHITMAN SEMIiVABY. 191 

in the many balls which were being built in the eastern 
states in honor of our brave soldiers who had fallen in 
battle. Two things, he said, were necessary for the 
erection of monuments : past history and permanent 
population. This valley had the former in the life 
and labors of Dr. Whitman, and the success of the 
present enterprise gave proof that many of the settlers 
intended this valley to be their permanent home. 

He then sketched the life and labors of Dr. Whit- 
man and his trip East in the dead of winter. Next he 
gave his ideas of the free school system, which he 
favored very strongly even to compulsory education ; 
but the seminary, he added, was a place where those 
who wished might obtain more knowledge, a step 
between the common schools and college. He divided 
education into three parts : that which makes us to be 
all we can be ; to do all we can do ; and to enjoy all 
we can enjoy, physically, intellectually, and morally, 
dwelling particularly on the cultivation of those facul- 
ties which are capable of enjoying the beautiful. He 
closed by congratulating Mr. Eells for his tireless 
labors and in seeing his hopes so far completed. 

The Walla Walla Statesman of October 19, 1866, 
also said: "The trustees express their gratitude to 
the Rev. Mr. Eells for the spirit of benevolence which 
he has manifested and for his zealous efforts for the 
ultimate establishment of a respectable educational 



192 FATHEB EELLS. 

institution in the valley, to be reared and perpetuated 
in memory of Doctor Whitman, who sacrificed his life 
in the early settlement of this country." 

The school began October 15 with Rev. P. B. 
Chamberlain as principal and Misses M. A. Hodg- 
don and E. W. Sylvester as assistants. The next 
March Mr. Chamberlain resigned. Mr. Eells had 
hoped that his days of teaching were over, but no 
other suitable teacher could be found. It seemed 
as if the school must be suspended unless he took 
charge. April 1, 1867, he assumed control, with the 
same assistants. He remained in this position until 
June, 1869. 

In the meantime, June, 1867, he had been elected 
school superintendent for Walla Walla County, then 
embracing all that is now contained in Walla Walla, 
Columbia, Asotin, and Garfield counties, with nearly 
as much more on the east side of the Columbia River. 
The region was nearly as large as Massachusetts. 
Some of the school districts were twenty miles long. 
His ideas were that the common school and the higher 
Christian institution were not antagonistic, but in 
harmony, the former furnishing students and the latter 
furnishing teachers. Hence he labored for both at the 
same time. 

It was severe and strength-taxing toil for him to 
board at home, six miles distant, or to board himself 



WHITMAN SEMINAR Y. 193 

at the Seminary, teach school five consecutive days, 
spend his Saturdays largely in attending to the county 
school business and his vacations in visiting schools. 
Yet he did the latter so faithfully that the county com- 
missioners willingly raised his salary from twenty-five 
dollars a year, his predecessor's pay, to five hundred 
dollars, the highest legal limit. 

For two years he served the county in this manner, 
and for more than two years he served the Seminary 
as its principal ; but the work was too hard for a man 
of nearly sixty. His family too had changed. When 
he began teaching in the Seminary his younger son 
was taking care of tlie farm and his older one was 
teaching a district school. But in the summer of 1868 
the younger one had gone to Connecticut to study for 
the ministry, and the older one had taken his place. 
But the latter was not satisfied to make that his life 
work and wished to go to Puget Sound and read law. 
It seemed as if some one must look after the prop- 
erty. Certainly some one must stay with Mrs. Eells ; 
hence he resigned as principal of the Seminary in 
June, 1869, and finally withdrew from teaching. Soon 
after, in August, his older son left for Seattle, and 
never made Walla Walla his home afterwards, and 
Mr. and Mrs. Eells were alone, except as they had 
hired help. 

When the Seminary was dedicated in 1866 it had 



194 FATHEB EELL8, 

quite a debt. The cost bad exceeded expectations ; 
not all tbe subscriptions had been paid, and on loans 
tlie trustees were paying from one to two per cent 
interest a month. Mr. Eells had given the Semi- 
nary one half the Whitman mission claim of six hun- 
dred and forty acres. To pay the debt the trustees 
had offered this for two thousand dollars, but there 
was no purchaser. As president of the Board, Mr. 
Eells had signed all the notes. With such interest 
financial ruin was staring the institution in the face. 
It seemed as if the building must soon be sold to pay 
the debt. Accordingly he went to work to pay those 
debts. Besides his work in teaching and as superin- 
tendent of schools, he farmed, raised stock, sold cord 
wood, peddled chickens, eggs and the like, and Mrs. 
Eells, though past fifty-seven, made four hundred 
pounds of butter, until she said, "I can do so no 
longer." She was then told to make only so much as 
was necessary for famil}^ use. The proceeds went to 
pay the debt. 

It is hence not strange that William Barrows, d.d., 
in an article entitled "A Day with a Veteran Forty- 
five Years in Oregon," said : '' As the doctor gave the 
details, I could not but remember the pecks of corn, 
and pewter plates and Hebrew Bibles and salt cups 
and sheep on which Harvard College started. Quincy, 
in his history of Harvard, wrote at the same time with 



WHITMAN SEMINABY, 195 

surprising accuracy and prophecy of the humble, 
heroic beginnings of Whitman College, and of Carle- 
ton too, and some others, growing to be so noble : 
' The poor emigrant, struggling for subsistence, 
almost houseless, in a manner defenseless, is giving 
according to his means toward establishing for learn- 
ing a resting place and for science a fixed habitation 
on the borders of the wilderness.'"^ 

Nor was it strange that, when Dr. P^ells related 
some of these incidents, at the annual meeting of the 
American Home Missionary Society at Saratoga in 
June, 1884, one old gentleman in one of the front 
seats rose with great eagerness and called for those 
contribution boxes again, saying, " I want to give that 
man something ; " and so a hundred dollars came for 
the institution ; or that The Cougregationalist said 
that "Mother Eells' churn, with which she made that 
four hundred pounds of butter, ought to be kept for 
an honored place in the cabinet of Whitman College." 
When Mr. Eells had obtained all these notes, which 
with accumulated interest amounted to $2,900, he 
offered to surrender them to the trustees for the land, 
which had been in the market for two years at two 
thousand dollars without a purchaser. This was done. 
Some one, however, made the remark that he would 
make a good thing out of it. He thought within him- 
JNew York Evangelist, April 3, 18S4. 



196 FATHEB EELLS. 

self : " What a pity that somebody else had not sense 
enough to perceive that they could make a good tliiug 
out of it ! " and he also said : "I will gag that person, 
and thus I will do it ; whatever shall be the increase in 
the value of that property the school shall have the 
benefit of it." When he sold the place in 1872 for 
eight thousand dollars another thousand went to the 
institution. 

From 1869 to 1872 they lived at home on the Whit- 
man mission. On May 28, 1872, in some way, never 
yet satisfactorily accounted for, their house caught fire 
about three o'clock in the afternoon, although there 
had been no fire in it since noon, and after unavailing 
efforts to save it, it was consumed with the greater 
part of its contents. Mrs. Eells then said : " We can 
leave now; we have nothing to leave." They did so. 
Their older son, who had been appointed Indian agent 
at Skokomish, on Puget Sound, having seen a notice 
of the fire, hastened to Walla Walla and took his 
mother home. 

Mr. Eells sold his place for eight thousand dollars, 
giving a thousand to Whitman Seminary and another 
thousand to the American Education Society, as a 
thank offering for its aid to him while obtaining his 
education. He stayed a little longer to settle his 
affairs, took a trip to Boise City, Idaho, to visit his 
younger son, who was preaching there, then returned 



WHITMAN SEMINARY. 197 

and went across the Cascade Mountains with his horse 
to Paget Sound, and before winter was with his wife 
at Skokomisb, and their life at Walla Walla was at 
an end. 

After Mr. Eells' departure the Seminary had a very 
precarious existence for a number of years. Some- 
times there was no school in the building. Mr. Eells 
sometimes felt as if all that he had done might be lost. 
Still he prayed for it, and gave it the best advice he 
could. The other trustees never took an important 
step without consulting him. From 1872 to 1880 no 
records of the trustees were kept : for they, feeling 
unable to pay good teachers, adopted the policy of 
allowing any teacher of standing to use the building 
for maintaining a school at his own risk and 
responsibility. 

After Mr. Eells' resignation in 1869, the following is 
a brief sketch of the Seminary and its teachers until 
1882: — 

During the year 1869-70 the institution was closed. 
Professor W. W. Freeman taught in 1870-71, about 
seven eighths of the academic year ; Pev. P. B. 
Chamberlain, 1871-72, about three fourths of the 
school year ; Rev. D. E. Jennings, assisted by his 
wife, a brief time ; Professor Crawford, one season, 
twenty-five weeks ; Miss Simpson, one season, twenty- 
five weeks ; Professor William Marriner, two seasons ; 



198 FATHEB EELLS. 

Professor W. K. Grim, two seasons ; Professor H. 
Lyman, succeeded by his son, Professor W. D. Lyman, 
one season, they being assisted by Rev. H. S. Lyman 
and Miss Sarah I. Lyman ; Professor J. W. Brock, 
one season ; Professor Rodgers, a short season ; Pro- 
fessor William Marriner, a very short season, followed 
by a suspension for two years ; Rev. E. R. Beach, 
assisted by his wife and Miss Gustin, about two thirds 
of a season, 1881-82. 

During these years matters often looked very dark 
for the Seminary. There was no endowment fund to 
assure salaries for teachers, and it was impossible for 
those who taught to carry it on steadily and success- 
fully for the receipts from tuition. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

WHITMAN COLLEGE. 
1882-93. 

AT this point it may be advisable to anticipate, 
-^^JL and to give an account of Dr. P^ells' further 
labors for the college. 

In 1880 Dr. G. H. Atkinson, one of the trustees, 
while conferring with the officers of the American 
College and Educational Society in Boston, secured a 
promise that this institution should be placed on its 
list as the college in Washington Territory to obtain 
its patronage as soon as it could fulfill the required 
conditions of the society as to collegiate classes and 
the like. 

President A. J. Anderson, then at the head of the 
Washington Territory University, at Seattle, one of 
the successful educators of the coast, was obtained 
as its president, his services beginning in September, 
1882 ; forty of the leading citizens of Walla Walla 
guaranteed three thousand dollars for three years for 
the salaries of teachers, should funds be needed after 
all tuition fees were paid ; and the institution took a 



200 FATHEB EELLS. 

step forward. In May, 1883, it was formally adopted 
by the College Society ; and in November of the same 
year the charter was changed by the legislature to 
allow it to become a college and to exempt its property 
from taxation. 

From 1882 until 1891 Dr. Anderson remained 
president. His relations with Dr. Eells were very 
cordial, nor could Dr. Eells reconcile himself to the 
resignation of President Anderson at that time, for 
they worked together hand in hand and heart to heart, 
each putting his whole soul into the work. In 1885 
he wrote to Dr. Anderson: "According to my ability 
I have a grateful appreciation of the service performed 
by 3'ourself as president of Whitman Seminary and 
College. The arduousness of the duties incident to 
the trying position I but partially comprehend. I 
would that befitting tribute be paid to the voluntary 
and unpaid service performed by yourself in con- 
nection with the erection of the College Hall and 
Ladies' Hall ; also, of Mr. Anderson in the latter. At 
no former date in your work in Walla Walla have I 
placed a higher estimate upon your ability, devotion, 
and efficiency than at the present time. I cordially 
commend you to the favor of Him whose resources 
are infinite." 

Soon, however, it became evident that more money 
must be obtained, and that from the East. No college 



WmTMAI^ COLLEGE. 201 

can succeed without an endowment. Dr. "William 
Barrows, of Massachusetts, a good writer, a firm friend 
of the college and of Dr. Whitman's work, which he 
had highly extolled in his "Oregon," was chosen 
financial agent, and others aided, but they obtained 
little money. 

In June, 1883, with the cordial approval of the 
College Society, the trustees informally selected Dr. 
Atkinson to go East as its agent ; but as he was then 
superintendent of Home Missions for Oregon and 
Washington, he said to Dr. Eells : "I cannot be 
spared so long ; but if you will go with me, I think 
that we two can do as much or more in six months 
as one can in twelve months." Dr. Eells could not 
decline. Dr. Atkinson added, however, that he must 
obtain the consent of the society at New York and this 
would require time. Accordingly, the two were 
elected by the trustees, although one trustee did not 
vote for Dr. Eells, believing him to be too old, for he 
was in his seventy-fourth year, and his sons felt that 
it would be too much for him to do the work, and 
especially to meet the rebuffs which he would neces- 
sarily encounter. At Cheney, in September following, 
Dr. Atkinson and Dr. Eells met again, and Dr. Eells 
said: "I do not feel able to go; you, Dr. Atkinson, 
go on this fall, and I will, if able, expect to meet you 
in the spring." He had previously planned to obtain 



202 FATHER EELLS. 

Rev. N. F. Cobleigh to go in his place, but that 
arrangement had proved impracticable. 

"That niglit," Dr. Eells says, "I went to my 
lodging and ascended the ladder to my sleeping apart- 
ments. I lay down upon my straw bed and slept. I 
awoke. Heaven and earth seemed to me to be not 
far apart. Lying upon my back, such were my views 
and feelings that I almost involuntarily reached up 
my hands to take hold on God. I took hold on 
Almighty strength. As spirit communicates with 
spirit, I believe the divme will was made known unto 
me. I was required to go East in behalf of Whitman 
College." The next morning he made known his 
change of views and feelings to Dr. Atkinson, who 
heartily approved. 

It was then planned that Dr. Eells should go to 
Detroit, Mich., and attend the Annual Meeting of the 
American Board, because he had been its missionary, 
and then proceed to Concord, N. H., to the National 
Council of the Congregational churches. There he 
was to meet Dr. Atkinson, both of them being dele- 
gates to that body. 

Accordingly, on September 25, he left his home at 
Cheney and went East for the first time in forty-five 
years. He attended the meeting of the Board, which 
began October 2, and reached Concord October 11. 
These gatherings and otlier similar ones during his 



WHITMAN COLLEGE, 203 

eastern visit he highly enjoyed, as he had been 
deprived of them nearly all his life. His journal 
often speaks of them as of a high order, rich in 
intellectual and spiritual privileges. He was elected 
assistant moderator of the council. His own idea of 
this honor is thus expressed : — 

" At the organization of the council I was almost 
stupefied with amazement. To no purpose I made 
request that my name be withdrawn ; it increased 
unanimity in the performance of an inexplicable pur- 
pose." The Pacific of San Francisco spoke thus of 
the event: "The brother who seems to have been 
most appreciated at the late meeting of the National 
Council was the Rev. Gushing Eells, of Washington 
Territory. We are accustomed to pay, here in Cali- 
fornia, some special deference and reverence to the 
few ministers among us who are able to be called 
pioneers of thirty-four years' standing. But in what 
we are thinking of as the New North are pioneers who 
have seen forty-five years of active service. A man 
who has worked for that length of time without even 
a visit to his old eastern home might naturally be 
excused for taking advantage of the Northern Pacific 
Railway to look in upon the National Council. It 
was fitting that he should be one of the moderators 
and be called with cheers the ' John the Baptist of 
the Home Missionary Society ! ' " 



204 FATHEB EELLS. 

One untoward occurrence, however, greatly sur- 
prised and disappointed him. This was a letter from 
Dr. Atkinson, stating that he could not come in 
October and perhaps not in November. In fact cir- 
cumstances were such that he did not go at all. Dr. 
Atkinson had left New England ten years after 
Dr. Eells, had made several trips back, and so was far 
more familiar with the people and everything neces- 
sary for success, and w^as nine years younger. Dr. 
Eells had expected that Dr. Atkinson would be the 
leader. This disappointment was almost greater than 
he could bear. He wrote : " To me it is inexplicable. 
My inquiring thought is : ' Will a benevolent Mind be 
willing that crushing burdens be placed upon myself?* 
I have thought that uncomplainingly I could give my 
life if thereby the essential prosperity of Whitman 
College could be assured. Maybe this is my infirmity. 
' In God we trust.' " A little later he wrote to Dr. 
Atkinson: "> My disappointment in the failure to see 
you at Concord was seemingly as great as I felt able 
to bear ! This repetition [that Dr. Atkinson could 
not go at all] is more stunning. It is, however, so 
manifestly by divine ordering that murmuring must be 
excluded. Reverently I use the words of another : 
^ It is just like God.'" 

His older son wrote : " Father, give up the under- 
taking. Do not try to perform it alone." Still he did 



WHITMAN COLLEGE. 205 

not give up. He believed that he had been commis- 
sioned by his Maker to perform the work, and he was 
obedient to the Iieavenly vision. 

He often spoke of this year of soliciting funds as by 
far the hardest year of his life. To be a public beggar 
was very unpleasant; to meet rebuffs from Christians 
was more so ; but unkind treatment from pastors was 
most severe of all. Perhaps nothing will so well give 
an idea of his feelings and trials as a few extracts 
from his journal and from letters to his sons : — 

" October 9. On awaking my eyes rested upon 
a card, upon which was printed Isaiah 41 : 10 : ' Fear 
thou not ; for I am with thee : be not dismayed ; for I 
am thy God : I will strengthen thee ; yea, I will help 
thee ; yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of 
my righteousness.' The words afford me support and 
comfort." 

''November 13. I may be invigorated — I may 
be nearing the end of ray earthly work. I am resigned 
to either. My thought is, O Lord, * The zeal of thine 
house hath eaten me up.' " 

" November 18. Though very unwell, I hope in 
God — trust the divine promises. I have an humbling 
sense of my unworthiness and frailty. My under- 
standing is that liy the Word and Spirit I am encour- 
aged to hope — to believe that I am approved in my 
work and shall succeed." 



206 FATHEB EELL8, 

"December 10. "Whether a delusion or a rational 
faith, I believe that according to the divine purpose 
Whitman College will be a glorious success. This is 
inspired in part by a review of the past. Its incep- 
tion, its embarrassments, its slow progress, its narrow 
escapes from failure are just like God. Not long ago 
my eyes rested upon 2 Chronicles 14 : 11 : ' And Asa 
cried unto the Lord his God, and said. Lord, it is noth- 
ing with thee to help, whether with many, or with them 
that have no power : help us, O Lord our God ; for 
we rest on thee, and in thy name we go against this 
multitude. O Lord, thou art our God ; let not man 
prevail against thee.' It opened up to me with new 
and precious interest. Slowly I repeat the words. I 
try to grasp their import ; to measure their meaning. 
To me in my present condition their meaning is a 
perfect fit." 

" January 12, 1884. Regarding my work, hope 
and fear alternate. With all the power of my being I 
address myself unto prayer." 

"January 19. Another week is passed. Seem- 
ingly I have accomplished but little. To human view 
the prospect that I shall obtain pecuniary aid for 
Whitman College is not encouraging. To the eye of 
faith there is hope." 

" March 1. Work and solicitude in behalf of 
Whitman College are painfully trying. The thought 



WHITMAN COLLEGE. 207 

is suggested that this may be suffering for Christ's 
sake. If so, then it may be endured in the spirit of 
those who rejoiced that they were counted worthy to 
suffer shame for his name. I had hoped to have 
received a pecuniary donation, but did not. Appear- 
ances are discouraging. My faith in God continues." 

" March 2. I plead trustfully in behalf of Whit- 
man College. To human view prospects are not 
bright. A living faith in the divine Word may sur- 
mount all difficulties." 

" March 30. I have painful solicitude in regard to 
Whitman College. I pray for its trustees, instructors, 
pupils, their parents and guardians, its pecuniary 
supporters and friends, also the community surround- 
ing it, that in every essential feature it may be a 
success — that in intellectual and moral power it may 
be colossal. O God of wisdom, knowledge, and 
might, be pleased to impart to the trustees jointly 
and severally sound judgment, a cooperative spirit, 
unfailing energy, and enduring efficiency. May the 
teachers have comprehensive apprehension of the 
momentous responsibility of their several positions. 
With high and holy purpose, hearty consecration, pre- 
vailing prayer, and indomitable energy, may they joy- 
ously perform their daily work. Give them discretion 
in the arrangement of plan and executive ability in 
its execution. Incline the pupils to be courteous, 



208 FATHER EELLS. 

docile, progressive in self-control, growing in benevo- 
lence of disposition and loveliness of character. 
Grant the inspiration of laudable ambition to excel 
in the attainment of intellectual culture, knowledge, 
mental and moral power, and, to crown all, an un- 
changing purpose to be loyal to truth and duty." 

" August 10. During waking moments in the early 
morning the words were in my mind : ' He shall bring 
forth thy righteousness as the light, and thy judgment 
as the noonday.' I accepted their presentation as the 
work of the Holy Spirit. My response was : ' Fulfill 
thy word.' There was pervasive expectation, if not 
faith, to believe that my toil and suffering for Whitman 
Seminary and College would be vindicated." 

"August 25. On a review of my experience and 
work since September 18, 1883, I am persuaded that 
I have been obedient. I have erred in judgment, 
suffered keenly on account of unkind treatment, 
largely by pastors, been buffeted by Satan, and in a 
measure frustrated. In presence of the universe I 
appeal to the all-knowing One. Thou, Jehovah of 
hosts, knowest that in integrity and uprightness, with 
singleness of purpose, I have endeavored to do thy 
will, according to ray understanding of that will. My 
zeal to subserve the best interests of Whitman College 
has been sincere, ardent. I have not conferred with 
flesh and blood. Such has been the intensity of my 



WHITMAN COLLEGE. 209 

devotion that thereby my judgment has been warped. 
In view of such convictions I exercise a calm trust. 
I look to a righteous God and ask for a full vindica- 
tion of my faithfulness. I make request, that, sup- 
plemented by his infinite compassion, its efficiency 
may be satisfactory." 

" September 15. On October 6, 1883, I passed 
East. I am to-day returning West on the same road. 
The intervening period has been one of earnest work^ 
severe trial, and repeated disappointment. There 
have been new experiences of divine discipline. 
Scripture has been opened in a manner before un- 
known. New views of truth have been afforded. I 
judge that the work I have done is important." 

*' October 23. Without ceasing I plead in behalf 
of Whitman College. I ask that Jehovah will befriend 
it. To human view pecuniary aid is greatly needed. 
I think of other gifts of richer value. A cordially 
united board of trustees, intelligent, earnest workers 
in its behalf are indispensable ; also, a corps of teach- 
ers endowed with lofty conceptions of the grandeur of 
their position and of the possibilities resultant there- 
from. Radical improvement of immortal powers de- 
mands profound study. To aid in their proportionate 
culture should be highly satisfying. To train success- 
fully the youthful mind, to inspire it with a hearty 
purpose to serve its Maker and its generation is 



210 FATHER EELLS. 

more than satisfying. The idea of adorning, beautify- 
ing imperishable powers may well enkindle holy enthu- 
siasm. In the enlightenment of the debased, moral 
ideas have been specially uplifting. The Christian 
quality of schools thus distinguished has been produc- 
tive of the best results. The more thoroughly the 
doctrines of revealed religion become incorporated into 
the intellect of students, the better every way. The 
more complete the Christian culture by teachers of 
pupils of Whitman College the nearer will the school 
exemplify the ideal of the original conception thereof." 

Notwithstanding all trials he was reasonably suc- 
cessful — far more so than many of his best friends 
had expected. The officers of the College Society 
aided him as much as they could. Some persons were 
as kind as they could be, so that on October 18 he 
wrote from Boston: " Next to the burden of respon- 
sibility inseparable from my special work is the burden 
of kindness shown me ; " and on October 27, when in 
Hartford at the Theological Seminary, from which 
he had graduated, he wrote; " I am amazed at the 
abounding mercy of God. The consideration with 
which I am treated exceeds my conscious deserts. O 
Lord, I am all un worthiness, but humbly ask that like 
success may attend my efforts in behalf of Whitman 
College." 

Mrs. S. C. Warren, the daughter of his old pastor, 



WHITMAN COLLEGE. 211 

Dorus Clarke, d.d., with her husband, S. D. Warren, 
gave a thousand dollars as a memorial for her father. 
Hon. Frederick Billings, formerly president of the 
North Pacific Railroad, gave another thousand ; an 
unknown friend in Cleveland, Ohio, sent another 
thousand ; fifteen hundred were received from the estate 
of Frederick Marquand, of New York ; Deacon Ezra 
Farnsworth and W. O. Grover, both of Boston, each 
gave a thousand ; old friends of his. Deacon William 
Hyde and his sister-in-law. Miss Sarah Sage, of Ware, 
together gave eight hundred ; David Whitcomb, of 
Worcester, gave five hundred, and others in smaller 
sums down to a " feeble friend," who gave fifty cents. 
The sums amounted to over twelve thousand dollars. 

His reception by Hon. Frederick Billings was among 
the pleasant events. He had called one day and made 
his statements. Mr. Billings took them into consid- 
eration and asked him to call again. He did so. Dr. 
Eells says, " By Mr. and Mrs. Billings I was con- 
descendingly heard ; " after which Mr. Billings said : 
" I shall do more than I intended." Subsequently he 
drew his check for a thousand dollars. Accompanying 
it was the statement : "Allow me to say that I enjoyed 
very much your call yesterday, and was exceedingly 
interested in the glimpses that you gave of your long 
and eventful life." 

Dr. Eells did not, however, obtain as much as he 



212 FATHEB EELLS. 

had hoped. In consequence thereof, July 2 he wrote : 
" In view of the failure to obtain what in my judg- 
ment is greatly needed, I propose to make a new will, 
whereby all my property, except what is given to 
relatives, shall be applied to Whitman College. I 
regard the pecuniary needs of the five Congregational 
societies,! to each of which I have willed a thousand 
dollars, to be less urgent than those of Whitman 
College ; therefore I shall, if permitted, make a new 
will corresponding thereto." This will had been made 
previous to his going East, and after his return he 
changed it as intended. 

Among the incidental pleasures were the meeting 
with a number of his acquaintances of 1825-38 and the 
making of many new ones, so that after his return to 
Washington he read the eastern newspapers with new 
interest ; the privilege of conducting the funeral serv- 
ices of his old pastor. Dr. Dorus Clarke ; attendance 
at the annual meeting of the American Missionary 
Association at Brooklyn ; the May anniversaries of 
the Congregational societies at Boston ; and of the 
Massachusetts Indian Association in the same city ; 
the meeting with Senator H. L. Dawes to confer on 
Indian affairs ; attending commencement at Williams 

^The American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, the 
American Home Missionary Society, the American Missionary Asso. 
ciation, the College and Education Society, and the Congregational 
Church Building Society. 



WHITMAN COLLEGE. 213 

College and the anniversary of Hartford Theological 
Seminary, his Alma Maters ; of the Inter-Seminary 
Missionary Alliance at Hartford, and of the American 
Home Missionary Society at Saratoga. 

His meetings too with his kinsfolk were most 
enjoyable. Some of them he had previously seen, but 
most of them never. He found them at Easthamp- 
ton, Springfield, South Franklin, Holden, and Worces- 
ter, Mass. ; Windham, Conn. ; Oxford, Ohio, and 
Champaign, 111. There was quite a reunion at the 
residence of Mr. J. F. Finch at Easthampton, Mrs. 
Finch being his niece. Just before leaving Massa- 
chusetts he baptized their youngest daughter. His 
only living brother came from Illinois to meet him. 
Together they wandered over their native hills and 
playground at Blandford, and visited their mother's 
grave ; and at Blandford he preached the sermon 
which he had preached there in October, 1837. He 
wrote from that place : ' ' Hallowed associations and 
kind treatment caused rich enjoyment. The atmos- 
phere was invigorating. Such privileges are like unto 
oases on life's journey. Inexpressible emotion was 
excited in view of evidence that special prayer in 
behalf of an individual offered fifty-one years ago had 
been answered during three generations." 

He might have remained East longer, for the secre- 
taries of the College Society gave him the privilege of 



214 FATHER EELLS. 

the field for another year, but he could no longer endure 
the strain. He wrote after his return to Washington : 
"In weariness and painfulness I toiled till strength 
failed. More than once I sank beneath the load. From 
exhaustion I narrowly escaped serious consequences." 
He turned homeward in September, 1884, visiting 
relatives and resting on the way. November 17 he 
stepped off the cars at his home at Cheney, from which 
he had been absent nearly fourteen months. During 
all this time Dr. Eells paid his own expenses, not 
wishing to take anything for this purpose from what 
was given in the East. These amounted to over eight 
hundred dollars. 

About the same time a new college building was 
erected at a cost of about fifteen thousand dollars, the 
old one being changed into a ladies' hall at an expense 
of about seven thousand. For money for the latter 
work Mrs. N. F. Cobleigh went East, obtaining about 
sixty-five hundred dollars. The college building was 
largely paid for by the people of Walla Walla. Dr. 
Eells gave the institution another thousand dollars at 
this time. 

After this Dr. Eells attended the commencements 
regularly, and it was often remarked how much he 
enjoj'ed the exercises as he sat on the platform. 

At the commencement in 1888 the fiftieth anniver- 
sary of his coming to the coast was celebrated. His 



WHITMAN COLLEGE. 215 

old friend, Mrs. Mary R. Walker, of Forest Grove, 
made the journey there, the first time she had been 
east of the Cascade Mountains for forty years, since 
they had fled from the Indian country. Dr. G. H. 
Atkinson was present. Rev. Myron Eells delivered the 
commencement address, an historical paper on "The 
Hand of God in the History of the Pacific Coast," and 
the oldest grandchild. Miss Ida M. Eells, in behalf of 
the ten grandchildren, came forward with a gift of ten 
dollars, some of which had been earned by cutting 
cord wood, to which Dr. Eells promised to add two 
hundred and fifty as soon as other children not over 
seventeen years old should increase the original sum 
to two hundred and fifty dollars. Dr. Atkinson gave 
five hundred dollars. President Anderson five hundred, 
and Dr. Eells a thousand more. This was to begin 
a Missionary Memorial Scholarship Fund, the income 
of which is to pay the tuition, in whole or in part, 
of needy, worthy students. 

In 1890 a very spirited discussion arose in regard to 
the denominational relations of the college. When the 
institution was adopted by the College Society it 
entered into the agreement with that society which it 
makes with all colleges aided by it. One article of this 
contract is that while the college must not be under the 
control of the State, neither must it be under the con- 
trol of any presbytery, synod, association, conference, 



216 FATHER EELLS. 

* 
convention, or other ecclesiastical body, though an 

additional item was inserted that a majority of the 
trustees must always be evangelical Congregationalists. 
But when an appeal was made to the Congregational- 
ists of the State for support some of them were afraid 
that the college might drift from its moorings. Ac- 
cordingly the next year a further agreement was made 
with the society, according to which the president of 
the college and a majority of its trustees must ever be 
Congregationalists ; else all the money that the college 
had previously obtained and should obtain through the 
society should revert to it. The trustees adopted, as 
one clause of their constitution, an article requesting the 
Congregational Association of Washington to nominate 
one third of the trustees, that is, to nominate three 
persons at each time for one third of the vacancies, 
one of whom the trustees pledged themselves to elect. 
This satisfied the churches so that they felt willing to 
support the college. It satisfied Dr. Eells too. 

A few more college entries from his journal may be 
interesting : — 

'' May 11, 1885. Day and night 1 cry for self and 
favor for Whitman College. With strong desire I im- 
portune ' Will the Lord cast off forever?' This is my 
infirmity. ' I will remember thy works ... of old.'" 

" April 15, 1889. I plead for mercy in behalf of 
Whitman College." 



WHITMAN COLLEGE. 217 

"May 24, 1890. The needs of Whitman College 
cause serious thought. My conviction has been that 
in my early and continuous efforts in its behalf I 
was obedient to what I believed to be the Divine 
Will." 

"June 11. At intervals during the night was exer- 
cised in prayer for Whitman College. I am persuaded 
that my prayers are prevailing." 

"April 15, 1891. To myself it seems that the 
words ' I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee ' must 
apply with reference to my efforts in behalf of Whit- 
man College. I am afraid that I claim too much. O 
Lord, do not I desire to be submissive?" 

" April 22. In agony I pray for Whitman College." 

" May 24. During much of the night I was exercised 
in prayer in behalf of Whitman College. The promises 
of the divine Word seem appropriate for myself. If I 
understand correctly, I may plead them in opposition 
to all who oppose, in opposition to all discouraging 
circumstances, in opposition to all opinions of men." 

"October 2. Dreamed about Whitman College; 
awoke ; was exercised in wrestling prayer for the col- 
lege. It seemed the agony was so great that body 
and spirit would part." 

Four times he thus speaks about it in his dreams. 

"November 20, 1892. Earnestly I pray for Whit- 
man College. My feelings are changeable," 



218 FATHER EELLS, 

That is the last entr}' about the institutiou, though 
he often said: ''I could die for Whitman College." 

In 1891 Rev. J. F. Eaton was elected ])resident 
and established the Gushing Eells lecture course. 
Dr. Eells was able to be present at one commencement, 
June, 1892, under the new president, and that was his 
last visit to Walla Walla. Before another commence- 
ment he had gone to join Dr. Whitman, Mrs. Eells, 
Fathers Spalding and Walker, and the Saviour for 
whom he had labored so long. 

It was on account of his earlier labors for this col- 
lege that in 1883, at the suggestion of Dr. A^tkinson, 
the degree of Doctor of Divinity was conferred upon 
him by Pacific University. 



CHAPTER IX. 

HOME MISSIONARY WORK. 

1872-81. 

I AM not a home missionary," said Dr. Eells at 
the annual meeting of the American Home Mis- 
sionary Society in June, 1884. "I never have been 
one exactly. You shall decide whether it has been 
my fault." He then went on to speak of his home 
missionary work. 

If being a home missionary means being under the 
American Home Missionary Society, or any similar 
one, then Dr. Eells never was one. The nearest he 
ever came to being a home missionary was when he 
made application to become one at the time he wished 
to go to Walla Walla in 1860 to lay the foundation of 
Whitman Seminary, and was refused. But if being 
a home missionary means working for weak churches 
in our own land, so weak that they are not able 
to support their pastor and must have help from 
outside sources, then Dr. Eells was one. He was a 
self-supporting home missionary, a Home Missionary' 
Society supporting himself, a Church Buildiug Society, 

219 



220 FATHER FELLS. 

a College Society, and also, for a time, a missionary 
of the American Missionary Association, as well as 
that Association itself while at Skokomish. 

Dr. Eells came to Puget Sound in 1872, and first 
looked on the salt water belonging to the Pacific 
Ocean after he had been on the coast for thirty-four 
years. 

But Puget Sound at that time was largely an unset- 
tled country. Those who lived in its region then are 
now its pioneers. There was not a railroad, the near- 
est being a short branch of the line between Portland 
and Tacoma, which extended from Kalama north 
about twenty-five miles to Pumphrey's, but ran no 
passenger train over that distance. The remainder 
of the road was a stage route to Olympia. Mrs. 
Eells came that way ; her husband came across the 
Cascade Mountains with his horse. 

Seattle, which boasts now of sixty thousand people, 
taken as donation claims in 1852 and laid out as a 
town the next year, had, in nineteen years, by a very 
slow growth, secured about twelve hundred inhabit- 
ants.^ Tacoma with her fifty thousand was not then 
even selected as the terminus of the Northern Pacific 
Railroad, this not having been done until the next 
year. In 1880 it had only seven hundred and twenty 
inhabitants. Kalama, having previously had a boona 

I Jn 1870 it had 1,107, and iu 1875 1,512 population. 



HOME MISSIONARY WORK. 221 

because there the first grading of the railroad had 
been done, had suffered from a reaction, and had 
been dubbed Kalamity. 

The entire region in the state west of the Cascade 
Mountains, which in 1892 had a population of 270,- 
245, had then about 20,000 ; ' and the twelve counties 
bordering on Puget Sound which in 1892 had 221,725 
inhabitants had then about 13,000.^ Thurston County 
had in 1870 the most population of any bordering on 
the Sound, having 2,246 people, 126 more than King 
County including Seattle, and 835 more than Pierce 
County including Tacoma. 

Mason County, where Dr. Eells went, with its school 
children now numbering 896 in twenty-seven districts, 
then had only forty-seven such children, sixteen of 
whom were on Hood Canal, and four school districts. 
Being in the backwoods. Mason County has had a 
slow growth compared with that of many of the 
neighboring counties. 

Nor was the region growing rapidly ; for while its 
counties from 1870 to 1880 about doubled their pop- 
ulation, those east of the Cascade Mountains increased 
theirs more than fivefold, from 6,928 to 36,015. 

The whole country was still in expectancy. Old 
settlers wondered whether the Chinook word alke^ 



1 17,050 in 1870 and 34,.499 in 1880. 
2 10, <J1'J iu 1870 and 21,515 in 1880. 



222 FATHER EELLS. 

meaning " soon," on the territorial seal by the side of 
the railroads, really would be fulfilled in their day. 

There was only one Congregational church on the 
Sound, that of Seattle, organized in 1870, having as 
late as Jane, 1873, only twenty-three members. The 
one at Olympia was not organized until 1873 and that 
of Tacoma until 1874, and then the latter was organized 
in a tent with five members. In Seattle and Tacoma, 
at both of which cities funeral services were held for 
Dr. Eells, and where at the time of his death there 
were ten Congregational churches with 1,443 members, 
there was in 1872 one church with not over twenty 
members. 

There were two Congregational ministers in the 
same region. Rev. J. F. Damon at Seattle and Rev. 
C. A. Huntington at Olympia. That was all of Con- 
gregationalism in Washington west of the Cascade 
Mountains, where fifty-six churches having 2,736 
members and forty-eight ministers existed when Dr. 
Eells entered the church above. 

When Dr. Eells removed to Mason County his sons 
hoped that he would rest, thinking that he needed to 
do so now that he was a dozen ^^ears on the shady 
side of fifty and had led so laborious a life. But he 
was too habituated to active life to allow himself to 
stop ; nor did it agree with his health to shut himself 
up in his room and study day after day. When he 



BOME MISSIONARY WORK. 223 

was fifty-seven a friend saw him mount a wild colt 
and said : " Mr. Eells will find it very hard to grow 
old." It was true at this time. The next year and 
nine months he spent on the Skokomish Reservation, 
again at work among the Indians, yet not confined 
to them, as he often preached to the whites from 
ten to thirty miles distant, at Oakland, Kamilchie, 
Meed Bay, and Olympia, aiding the small, struggling 
Congregational church at the latter place with money 
as well as by preaching. His older son had been 
appointed Indian agent at Skokomish in 1871 under 
President Grant's peace policy. A Sabbath-school 
and pra^^er-meeting had been established the same 
year and some sermons read by the employes. But 
the first sermon preached was by Dr. P^ells, October 6, 
1872. A council house, to be used as a church, was 
erected in 1874 by the government. 

As the outcome of his labors at Skokomish, and 
that of the other whites on the reservation, a church 
was organized, June 23, 1874, and Dr. Eells was 
chosen pastor, a position he retained nearly two years. 
As this agency had been assigned to the American 
Missionary Association, under President Grant's pol- 
icy, he was now its missionary ; but as he supported 
himself he was an association itself. One circum- 
stance, however, troubled him in his work with the 
Indians : he was too old to learn a new language and 



224 FATHEB EELLS. 

he could not reconcile himself to talking through an 
interpreter. He thought that this work should be in 
younger hands. 

Previous to the organization of the church he had 
heard of the remarkable work of grace among the 
Spokane Indians, under Rev. H. H. Spalding, his 
former fellow worker and the veteran missionary 
among the Nez Perces, and under Rev. H. T. Cowley. 
It was largely too the result of the labors of himself 
and Mr. Walker between 1838 and 1848. Leaving the 
work at Skokomish in the hands of his younger son, 
who had gone there on a visit in June, 1874, he 
made the journey over the Cascade Mountains to the 
Spokane country, and in 1875 went there again. The 
story is narrated in Chapter V. 

That year he left his faithful horse, Le Blond 
(French for sorrel horse), east of the mountains, 
where he remained until 1888. The horse was born 
at Walla Walla in 1869. He is first mentioned in his 
master's journal March 9, 1871. He carried his mas- 
ter three times across the Cascade Mountains, and 
was his traveling companion from 1874 to 1888 east 
of the mountains, where he was known almost as far 
as his master was. 

The spring of 1875 brought the seventieth birth- 
day of Mrs. Eells. On the evening of May 26 her 
friends assembled at the residence of her older son 



HOME MISSIONARY WOUK. 225 

to congratulate her. Among tbem were both her 
sons and their families. Several hymns were sung, 
including two of her life-loved ones, beginning : — 

" God is the refuge of his saints," 

to the tune of Malvern, and 

" While thee I seek, protecting power.** 

to the tune of Brattle Street. Remarks were made 
by Dr. R. H. Lansdale, congratulating her on her birth 
and education in Massachusetts ; her work among the 
Spokane Indians, and the recent ripening of the seed 
then sown ; on her social relations, her husband and 
sons — one being an Indian agent, and the other a 
missionary among the Indians, and on her arrival 
at the age of threescore and ten. In her reply she 
stated that she had made a public profession of reli- 
gion when thirteen, and that she had never regretted 
becoming a Christian when so young, as it had been 
the means of saving her from much temptation and 
trouble. 

Portions of some of her old letters, already given, 
were read, which were written before the age of 
envelopes, and which had the old-fashioned " SHIP" 
stamped on them, and 22 for postage. The good 
old aoe of several of the members of the mission 



226 FATBEB EELL8. 

of which she had been a member was remarked, 
Rev. H. H. Spalding, who had died the year previous, 
having been seventy-one, and the six others then being 
between sixty-five and seventy, Mrs. Eells being the 
oldest. The doxology was sung. Deacon W. Wright 
led in prayer, the benediction was pronounced, and 
thus closed an " Interesting Occasion," as it was 
called by the newspapers. It was somewhat of an 
impromptu affair, yet one which all present enjoyed, 
and which the older of her daughters-in-law said she 
would not have had omitted for anything. 

Mr. Eells spent the winter with his family, but 
received a call to preach the next summer mainly to 
the whites in the Colville valley. Hence in April, 
1876, he resigned his pastorate at Skokomish and 
labored during the summer as requested, spending 
some of the intervening weeks and an occasional Sab- 
bath with the Spokane Indians. 

That year he was invited to deliver a Fourth of July 
address at Colville. As it was the centennial year, 
1876, the oration was expected to be largely an 
historical sketch of the valley. Partly from public 
records, partly from the reminiscences of early settlers, 
and partly from his ow^u recollection it was prepared. 
That was the first Fourth ^of July celebration in the 
Colville valley. One man, John A. Simms, Indian 
agent, was present, who h:ul l)een present when he 



HOME MISSIONARY WORK. 227 

delivered the first similar address in the Walla Walla 
valley sixteen years before. 

On his way to Colville he was also asked to prepare 
an historical sketch of the Walla Walla valley and to 
read it at their Fourth of July celebration ; but as he 
expected to be in the Colville valley, two hundred and 
fifty miles distant, he felt unable to make the journey. 
Hence he prepared the paper and sent it to the cele- 
bration, where it was read ; and afterwards it was 
printed. 

During the summer of 1876 Mrs. Eells made her last 
journey to Forest Grove and Hillsborough, in com- 
pany with her younger son, a visit which she enjoyed 
very much, as she met with many of her acquaintances 
of the early days of Oregon. While on a visit at the 
house of Rev. J. S. Griffin, near Hillsborough, June 9, 
it was found that eleven grown persons were present, 
six of whom were pioneers of the country, and the 
other five were their cliildren. The united age of the 
six pioneers was 413 years ; namely. Rev. E. Walker, 
aged 70 ; his wife, 65 ; Mrs. H. H. Spalding, 68 ; Mrs. 
C. Eells, 71 ; Rev. J. S. Griffin, 68, and his wife, 71. 
All of these had been missionaries on this coast, and 
all but Mrs. Spalding, second wife of Rev. H. H. 
Spalding, had come to the coast previous to 1840, and 
she had come twenty-four years previous. They had 
not all met before for about twenty-three years. 



228 FATHEB EELLS. 

Three of the grandchildren of the third generation 
were also present. The older ladies had a prayer- 
meeting by themselves as in olden time, and the visit 
closed with four short prayers, all of the grown 
persons being professing Christians. 

As Mr. Eells traveled over eastern Washington, and 
saw it filling rapidly with settlers, on account of 
the interest awakened by thie Northern Pacific Rail- 
road, he felt that something must be done for them 
religiously. True, Puget Sound was also growing. 
But he was drawn to the eastern part as irresistibly 
as iron by a magnet. When at Skokomish he made 
trips through Mason County, into Thurston County, 
into the rich Chehalis valley, and through Pierce 
County, and up and down the Puyallup valley, one 
of the richest in western Washington. Here too were 
all his children and grandchildren, and his wife, now- 
past threescore and ten, little able to move again. 
But all these did not attract him as did the eastern 
part of the State. There had been his first home in 
Washington, his work among the Indians from 1838 to 
1848 ; there his Indians were still ; this had been the 
scene of his work in memory of Dr. Whitman from 
1860 to 1872 ; and there was his child, Whitman 
Seminary ; there were many of his friends ; there he 
felt at home. It was as difficult to transplant him in 
old age as to transplant a fruit tree. He planned to 



HOME MISSIONABY WORK. 229 

leave everything west of the mountains, except the 
faithful, loyal, noble helpmeet, who even at seventy 
was willing to go if Providence favored the under- 
taking, and to go north of Snake River. Though his 
Indians were cared for by others ; though there was 
no call to return to the Colville valley, nor any call to 
any church, he waited for no such calls, for there was 
not a Congregational church north of Snake River, or 
even east of the Columbia, except at Walla Walla, 
where P. B. Chamberlain was pastor. He proposed 
to call a church ; to hunt the scattered sheep and 
gather them into a fold ; to go out into the highways 
and hedges and compel them to come in. 

True, the country was not thickly settled. Spokane, 
now with its thirty thousand inhabitants, had in 1874, 
when he first visited it after it was laid out as a town 
(though he had visited the place thirty or more years 
before) , only two women ; and for many years after- 
wards had in Cheney a strong rival, and in 1880 
could boast of only about a hundred people. The 
whole country north of Snake River and east of the 
Columbia in Washington formed but two counties ; 
that of Wiiitman, including mainly what is now Whit- 
man, Franklin, and Adams; and that of Stevens, 
including what is now Stevens, Spokane, Lincoln, 
and Douglas, and also reaching across the Columbia 
and taking in Okanogan. The entire district, which 



230 FATHER FELL 8. 

in 1892 had a population of 77,971, bad in 1876 only 
2,434. There was no railroad. Not until 1883 was 
the last spike on the Northern Pacific driven. But 
there was a certainty that it would be built through 
that region ; hence a few had gone there, among them 
quite a number of Dr. Eells' old acquaintances in the 
Walla Walla valley. 

In early days he often spoke of the rich Palouse 
country, and so he turned his steps in 1877 to its 
center, Colfax. August 9, 1874, while passing from 
Colville to Skokomish, he had preached his first ser- 
mon there, the first preadiing from a Congregational 
minister in that town. On his trips between the same 
places in 1875 and 1876 he had stopped some weeks 
in Whitman County. Tliere had been talk of organ- 
izing a church. The first person to speak of it was 
Mrs. M. R. Stephens, who with her mother, Mrs. 
Renshaw, were the only known Congregatioualists in 
the region, they having been members of the church 
at Walla Walla. By 1877 there was evidence that the 
time had come to organize. Dr. Atkinson was asked 
to assist. Before he arrived the Presbyterians had 
proposed to organize, and it was unwise for both 
denominations to do so. Dr. Eells was in doubt. On 
the Thursday previous he went out of the place to 
look for Dr. Atkinson's arrival. As he sat under a 
pine tree he spread the case before the Lord. During 



HOME MISSION ABY WORK. 231 

the summers of 1874-77 he had talked and worked for 
this organization. Now it seemed as if it might not 
be best. He felt partly willing that such should be 
the case, for a great responsibility would be taken from 
him. He had found at Colville that Rev. H. T. Cowley 
was supplying the region. So Dr. Eells felt as if his 
work north of Snake River might soon be closed. 
When Dr. Atkinson arrived there was considerable 
consultation. Friday evening it was decided to go 
forward, though Dr. Eells preferred not to be present, 
but retired to his room and asked the great Head of 
the Church to decide, and then slept, calmly, quietly, 
restfully. On the following Sabbath, July 8, 1877, 
ten persons entered into the organization. There was 
evidence of the power of the Spirit. Dr. Eells was 
chosen pastor, and occupied the position for four 
years. 

That was the first Congregational church north of 
Snake River, and in his judgment all similar churches 
in that region are its outgrowth. He felt that the 
words were applicable : " There shall be an handful of 
corn in the earth upon the top of the mountains ; the 
fruit thereof shall shake like Lebanon." 

He remained at Colfax until November, when he 
returned to Skokomish and spent the winter with his 
wife and children. He could not, however, forget his 
church. Besides a union prayer- meeting in Colfax 



232 FATHER EELLS, 

on Wednesday evening, the Congregational church 
there had established a small meeting on Friday even- 
ing for its own benefit, and often on Friday evenings 
while Dr. Eells was at Skokomish he was accustomed 
to write a letter to some member of the church to be 
read at those meetings. The following extracts from 
letters dated December 14 and 21, 1878, are here 
given : — 

"This is Friday evening. I am specially reminded 
of seasons of rare interest which were enjoyed by 
Plymouth Church at Colfax, while I was there. More 
than four weeks have passed since from the eminence 
on the south I turned and looked upon the village and 
ejaculated heavenward in behalf of its inhabitants. 
There is but one record, and that not accessible by 
mortals, of the inquiring thoughts I have had regard- 
ing those in Whitman County whose kind attentions 
have excited within me emotions of gratitude and joy. 
I cherish an abiding interest in the welfare of those 
for whom I have labored in the Lord. Congregations 
addressed, personal conversations had are distinctly 
recalled, accompanied with fervent prayer to Him who 
giveth increase. The ever-present One understands 
all. I conceive Plymouth Church as forming a sacred 
enclosure — the members being the enclosing fence, 
hedge, or wall. If abounding in love, walking cir- 
cumspectly, cherishing a spirit without guile, abiding 



HOME 3IISSI0NABY WORK. 233 

in Christ and he in them, the wall is entire, impreg- 
nable. But if one fail, then there is an opening for 
the entrance of the enemy. God is my record, how 
greatly I long after you all in the bowels of Jesus 
Christ. And this I pray, that your love may abound 
yet more and more in knowledge and in all judgment, 
that ye may approve things that are excellent, that ye 
may be sincere and without offense till the day of 
Christ, being filled with the fruits of righteousness, 
which are by Jesus Christ, unto the glory and praise 
of God." 

"The return of Friday evening reminds me of the 
precious circle at Colfax with whom it was my privi- 
lege to meet on this evening of the week. If by riding 
several miles I could be with them to-night, I should 
be inclined to do so. Possibly the fact that the grati- 
fication of such desire is iuipossible should check the 
indulgence thereof. The Master does not require 
us to attempt to perform impossibilities. ' Behold, to 
obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the 
fat of rams.' According to my understanding it is 
clearly duty for me to be at this place at this time, 
therefore I ought cheerfully to accept the conviction 
and submissively yield to its power. It is accepted 
according to that a man hath. Our separation im- 
poses no restraint to prayer. The distance interven- 
ing between us does not diminish aught of pen, ink, 



234 FATIIEIi EELLS, 

or paper. If the instrumentalities named shall be 
faithfully employed, we may mutually become bearers 
of each other's burdens and helpers of each other's 

joy." 

The following two letters of sympathy written the 
same winter are also given, for although they have no 
reference to the church at Colfax, yet they show that 
he was acting the pastor wherever he could, when he 
could not be with his church. 

The first was dated January 21, 1878, and was 
written to Dr. D. S. Baker and wife, of Walla Walla, 
on the death of two children within four days of each 
other : — 

" I take the liberty to do myself the mournful 
pleasure of expressing sincere sympathy in your 
double bereavement. Possibly the words which I have 
used are not strictly correct, rather that I fail to 
realize their fullness of meaning. You are aware that 
I have not had experience like to that with wliich you 
have of late been exercised. I am unable to appreci- 
ate the reality of the void thus made in your family 
circle. 

"Possibly in your lone thoughts has been this: 
namely, that yourselves were not aware of the strength 
of attachment to the loved objects which have recently 
been removed from your sight. I transcribe from J. 
Cook's Lectures, page 182 : ' Gentlemen, there is more 



HOME MISS ION ABY WOIiK. 235 

than one soul here l)esides miue sad with unspeakable 
bereavement. There are eyes here besides mine which 
weary the heavens with beseeching glances for one 
vision of faces snatched from us in fiery chariots of 
pain.' In a sense, that which has a tendency to 
revive sorrow may be unwelcome, yet it is said that 
there is an unwillingness to be divorced from sorrow, 
an unwillingness to forget those, the remembrance of 
whom causes pain. There is a great truth contained 
in the words ' O comfortable sorrows ! ' There are 
occasions when old expressions have a freshness of 
meaning, such as ' Sanctified afflictions are choice 
mercies.' I may repeat only that with which you are 
familiar, when I suggest, your dear departed children 
have been taken from the evil to come. Parents and 
friends will not again experience pain in witnessing 
their sufferings — will not again hear their utterance, 
' I am sick.' Their battle for life has ceased. They 
rest. The storms of the world will not disturb their 
slumber. Evil communications will not corrupt, the 
strife of tongues will not annoy them. By the bed of 
the dying, by the grave of the dear departed the true 
idea of human probation is invested with large im- 
portance. A cordial acceptance of revealed truth is 
then of unspeakable importance." 

The other letter, dated January 29, 1878, was to 
the wife of his brother John, of Oxford, Ohio, who 



236 FATHER EELLS. 

had been an invalid for more than twenty years from 
an injury of the spine : — 

"If permitted to walk into your residence, I think 
I should enter the room in which you lecline, with 
exercise of hallowed emotions. In a sense clouds and 
darkness encompass yourself and your children. In 
a thick cloud the Lord descended upon Mount Sinai. 
Cloud and fire were the visible insignia of the divine 
presence. In your case, though they be less visible, 
are they less real? The fiery trials through which you 
have been passing these many years are doubtless 
under the control of Infinite wisdom and beneficence. 
The three Hebrew children in the furnace heated 
sevenfold were not unattended. The form of the 
fourth was visible. To you, in the furnace, the pres- 
ence of the invisible is that of the Son of God. Such 
companionship ma}^ render any situation bearable, 
comfortable, enjoyable. In the crucible the dross is 
purged, the tin is taken away. ' And I will bring 
the third part through the fire, and will refine them 
as silver is refined, and will try them as gold is 
tried : they shall call on my name, and I will hear 
them : I will say. It is my people : and they shall say, 
The Lord is my God.' 

" I conceive of your experience as far in advance 
of most of your fellows. The blessedness of the 
pure is abundant compensation for the pain endured 



HOME MISSlONAltr WOTtK. 237 

in the process of separating impurities. Do weari- 
ness and pain coropel you to ask : ' Why am I a 
target pierced with the devil's darts ? Am I a sinner 
above otliers ? ' 'Neither hath this man sinned, nor 
his parents : but that the works of God sliould be 
made manifest in him.* In the revolving cycles of 
the long future there will be a completely satisfactory 
solution of the, to yourself, dark language of divine 
discipline. I suggest there may be a reversing of 
relationships. Your solitariness and sorrow may be 
exchanged for the occupancy and enjoyment of a 
choice selection in the mansions and society of our 
Father's house. Possibly you will be preferred to an 
honorable position : to the performance of a distin- 
guished part in the oratorio of heaven : in a spiritual 
concert of the combined worlds and all their inhabit- 
ants in the presence of their Creator. But, leaving 
conjecture for certainty, if your name is written in 
heaven, in this rejoice. ' For I reckon that the suf- 
ferings of this present time are not worthy to be 
compared with the glory which shall be revealed in 
us.' ' For we walk by faith, not by sight.' 

" Enclosed please note evidence that ten dollars 
await your application for the same. Please accept the 
small gift as indication of sympathizing regard. You 
and yours are commended to the divine compassion." 

On March 5, 1878, the fortieth anniversary of his 



288 PATHEE EELLS. 

marriage was celebrated at the residence of their 
older son. All of their children and grandchildren 
were present, ten in number, except one son, who 
was called away on official business. The figures 
*' 1838-1878 " were placed in an appropriate position 
in the room and a copy of the original marriage cer- 
tificate taken from the Holden (Mass.) book of records 
was read. The evening was occupied chiefly with 
remarks and singing. During the evening it was said 
that it is a common remark that ministers' and dea- 
cons' children were the worst children, but that it did 
not seem to be true in the present case, as ministers 
and deacons entered very largely into the ancestry of 
Dr. and Mrs. Eells. Much was also said about their 
ancestry, and extracts from old sermons and letters 
of different members of the family during the last 
centurv were read. Favorite hymns of the aged 
couple were sung, as : — 

'' Thus far the Lord hath led me on." 
" Wliile thee I seek, protecting power." 
*' From Greenland's icy mountains." 
" Silently the shades of evening." 

It had been a common remark of Dr. Eells that 
with his staff he came to this country, but that now 
he had become two l)ands (Gen. 32:10). During 
the evening those two bands presented Dr. and Mrs. 



HOME MISSION All Y WORK. 239 

Eells with a gold ring and a set of Potter's Complete 
Bible Encyclopaedia in three volumes. 

In the spring of 1878 he went again to Colfax, but 
soon thought it best for his wife to be associated with 
him there in his labors. Providence thought other- 
wise. June 15 he returned with the intention of 
taking her with him. On May 31 she had been 
attacked with pleurisy — her last sickness. Tele- 
grams were immediately sent to Dr. Eells, but failed 
to reach him. He did not learn of her sickness until 
he was within ten miles of home. Instead of removing 
to Colfax she removed to heaven. In a measure she 
recovered from the attack, but her constitution was 
not strong enough to rally. A cough, too, which she 
had had since eighteen years old, now troubled her 
very much. This sickness continued for seventy days, 
yet during that time patience and submission to God 
and towards others, with faith and grace, were marked 
traits. The following quotations from her funeral 
sermon give some incidents of her sickness : — 

" When her husband returned from Colfax he said: 
' This is a different meeting from what we expected.' 
She replied : 'How gentle God's commands!' More 
than once she had spoken of death as a ' passing over, 
passing over.' That was all there was of death — a 
passing over the river. When asked whether she wished 
to live or die, to go to Colfax or not, she repeatedly 



240 FATHEIi EELLS. 

said ; ' I do not wish to decide.' Once, in regard to 
the anticipated removal to Colfax, she said : ' I prayed 
that God would decide it for me, and I think he has 
done so.' 'I would like to do something for you,' 
was said to her one day. She replied : ' It is too late.' 
' I would like to do something to comfort you,' was 
said again. 'I am comforted,' she said; 'Jesus is 
mine, and I shall soon go to him, I guess.' When a 
funeral took place among the Indians the difference was 
spoken of between her own condition and that of the 
deceased. ' I hope in Christ,' she replied. At another 
time she repeated the words, ' Jesus can make a dying 
bed feel soft as downy pillows are,' and said, ' Pray 
for this.' She was then asked : ' Do you think this a 
dying bed? ' ' I do,' she said ; but afterwards added : 
* It is not dying nov:^ but I think I cannot get well.' 
'Does he make it soft?' was then asked. 'Is it not 
soft be to resigned?' she replied. At one time she 
thought she was going, and said : ' Pray for me.' 
When asked, 'What shall I pray for?' she replied, 
'Faith, patience, and grace.' 

"True, she has not said very much while sick, for 
she has not been able to converse much ; but she has 
said these things, and I think that any one who has 
been with her has noticed that she had faith, patience, 
and grace. Her prayer was answered, and while not 
saying much she has lived these graces while passing 



HOME MISSION ABY WOBK. 241 

through the valley of the shadow of death. Patience 
for others' convenience and for God ; submission to the 
will of others and to Christ's will — she has by 7iot speak- 
ing, and by not acting, but by lying still, spoken and 
acted these more plainly than words could express them. 

"Thirty years ago, in writing to her mother, she 
said, in speaking of death, ' How much we shall have 
to praise the Redeemer for, if we shall be permitted 
to meet at his right hand ! ' " 

She died August 9, 1878, at the age of seventy- 
three. Funeral services were held at Skokomish, the 
sermon being preached by her son, as there was no 
other minister within thirty miles. His text was Acts 
7:60, "He fell asleep;" for her death had been 
simply going to sleep — the breath growing shorter 
and shorter without any apparent pain until she woke 
in glory. At the close of the service Dr. Eells stood 
by the coffin and wished to say one word to the 
audience. It was " Gratitude." Then turning to her 
he said : " We hope to meet again." 

The word Gratitude meant gratitude because he had 
enjoyed her society so long and because he hoped 
to meet her again. The remains were then taken to 
Seattle, where services were held in the Congrega- 
tional church, the sermon being preached by Rev. 
G. H. Atkinson, d.d., from 2 Corinthians 5:1. She 
was buried in the cemetery near that place, 



242 FATHER EELLS, 

Soon after the death of Mrs. Eells, Dr. Eells 
returned to Colfax, there to live, with the exception 
of an annual visit to Skokomish. 

Before her death plans had been made for erecting 
a church building at Colfax. At first the proposition 
was made to the church that if it would allow other 
churches to use the building half the time, they would 
cooperate in building it. In accordance with that 
plan subscriptions were made. But to Dr. Eells this 
was injudicious. He believed that the Congregational 
Churcli would have to do the greater part of the work, 
and would have the church but half the time. After 
consultation the plan was abandoned. Then Dr. Eells 
said that he would give as much as all the members 
for the erection of a building, not to exceed a thou- 
sand dollars. J. A. Perkins gave five hundred dollars, 
the rest five hundred. It was a great effort, and some 
had to borrow money. When finished the cost was 
over two thousand. The money was all furnished by 
the church, then increased to thirteen members, and 
its pastor, except about fifty dollars. 

It was a small band, but " those charter members 
were a host. They were influential and highly 
esteemed. They were small in number, but earnest, 
active, efficient." Dr. Eells also paid a hundred 
dollars for the lots, a hundred more for the organ, 
three hundred and eleven for its bell, hangings, and 



HOME MISSIONARY WORK, 243 

transportation, and for hymn books, Bible, extra work, 
and the like, enough to make, in all, sixteen hundred 
dollars. The building was thirty by sixty feet, begun 
in 1878, but not finished so as to be dedicated until 
September 7, 1879. Dr. Eells offered the dedicatory 
prayer, and it was dedicated free of debt. 

Dr. Eells prayed as well as worked for this church. In 
his journal are the following items in respect to this : — 

"August 10, 1877. Have spent hours in prayer." 

"November 9. The last church prayer-meeting 
which I shall attend at present. O God, be a wall of 
fire about, and a glory in the midst thereof." 

" December 31. My especial work of the year 
has been at Colfax and vicinity. I have comfort in 
the conviction that I have been divinely guided. I 
humbly ask that in the future I may be enabled to 
discern the indications of the divine will, and be 
faithfully obedient." 

" June 23, 1878. I am much exercised in prayer in 
behalf of Plymouth Church, at Colfax." 

"August 20, 1879. A portion of the night was spent 
in earnest prayer — prayer for the people of Colfax, 
prayer for myself as a gospel minister and school su- 
perintendent, prayer for the members of the Plymouth 
Church, prayer for the church building enterprise." 

"October 8. Much of the time did not sleep. It 
was a night of special prayer. I prayed earnestly for 



244 FATHEB EELL8. 

myself, Plymouth Church organization and building. 
I have presumption of faith that the seal of divine 
approval be set to my work ; that the membership of 
Plymouth Church be spiritual, effective, and increased, 
and the church house be honored by the presence 
of Him who abode in the cloudy pillar. 1 hope, I 
believe, I trust in God. I bless the Lord for the evi- 
dence that the interceding Spirit indited my requests." 

" December 26. O Lord, be pleased to pardon the 
weakness of my physical strength, also the lack o/ 
trust in thee. Be thou a wall of fire round about, and 
a glory in the midst of Plymouth Church." 

In the autumn of 1878 Dr. Eells was elected School 
Superintendent of Whitman County, having been 
nominated at the suggestion of Mr. L. P. Berry, who 
had been a teacher in Walla Walla County when 
he was superintendent there. Whitman County was 
then considerably larger than Connecticut. When Mr. 
Berry told him of the nomination he said: "I ques- 
tion the wisdom of your course. I am too old." Mr. 
Berry replied: "I did it for the children's sake." 
When the Democratic convention met, William Ham- 
ilton, the leading person in it, said: " I propose that 
we do not nominate a candidate for school superin- 
tendent. We all know Father Eells." Nor did they 
nominate really ; but when the convention had trans- 
acted its business and the leaders had all gone, a 



HOME MIJSSIONABY WOBE. 245 

remnant said : " We must have a full ticket." They 
nominated a young man who was trying to hold land 
in Idaho, and was not a legal voter in Washington. 
He was not elected. 

With the forty or fifty school districts in the county 
and his other duties as pastor Dr. Eells soon found that 
he had not the requisite strength. Accordingly he 
resigned the superintendency, June 1, 1879, and his 
successor was appointed. This gentleman failed to 
qualify, and Dr. Eells served his term of two years. 

The following quotation is one of his own accounts 
of his work for this purpose : — 

" Monday morning left Colfax ; rode perhaps seven 
miles ; was at a school in Spring Valley soon after 
nine o'clock. Hobbled my horse and let him graze 
outside, and spent the forenoon in school. At twelve 
o'clock I rode on and ate a cold lunch in the saddle. 
After a little more than an hour's ride, arrived at a 
school in Thousand Spring Valley. Remained till the 
close of school. I then rode on ; ate my supper as I 
had done my lunch. When it was becoming a little 
dark I arrived at the residence of aged persons who, 
I thouglit, would entertain me. It was raining. I 
knocked at the door ; there was no response. There 
was a rude stable constructed of rails and straw. I 
went to that ; there was no feed there. I had taken 
the precaution to carry a small portion of grain on my 



246 FATHER EELLS. 

horse. I now gave that to him. I had not planned 
to camp ; consequently my bedding was short. The 
flooring of the stable was the ground. I lay down ; 
slept some of the time, and some of the time I did 
not. In the morning the rain had ceased falling. 
My horse needed grass. I went out and lay down, 
making a pillow of my arm, and added somewhat to 
my sleep. Had a cold breakfast of such food as I 
had ^vith me. Had traveled thirty-five miles the day 
before. In due time I passed on. At half-past eight 
I was near the schoolhouse that I wished to visit. It 
was a large school and there was an unusual number 
of large scholars. I spent the entire forenoon in that 
school, my horse outside hobbled and grazing. 

" At the close of school I rode on to the school at 
Col ton, and was there seasonably for the afternoon 
session, and remained there until near the close of the 
afternoon. As 1 had failed the night before to find 
entertainment, I now planned to be in season. I had 
several miles to ride. I rode down the valley called 
Union Flat. While passing I took out dry bread, 
dismounted, dipped it in the water, and then got 
in tlie saddle. It speedily softened. Seasonably I 
arrived at the residence of Mrs. H. B. Heald. I said 
to her : ' Will you allow me to leave to-morrow morning 
before breakfast ? ' — for I had some ten miles to ride 
to go to the next school. ' I think we can give you 



HOME MISSIONARY WOBK. 247 

an early breakfast,' was the reply. She arose at five 
o'clock the next morning and gave me my breakfast 
so early that I was at the schoolhouse as soon as the 
teacher arrived. I spent the forenoon in that school 
and then returned to Colfax. I had been out two and 
a half days, visited five schools, and traveled a hun- 
dred and twenty miles or more." 

Dr. Eells' first plan was to organize the church at 
Colfax and then secure some suitable person as its 
pastor, and leave it, as he felt that he ought not to 
be permanently away from his wife so much. As no 
one could be found, he stayed and planned to take his 
wife with him. Her death prevented this, and so he 
remained as its pastor for four years, hoping some 
one would be found to take his place. Finding after 
he had passed his seventy-first birthday that his labors 
were too much for him, he resigned unqualifiedly, July 
1, 1881, and shortly after had the pleasure of seeing 
his place filled by Rev. J. T. Marsh. He left the 
church with a membership of twenty-eight, the largest 
church at that time in eastern Washington. 

Six years later, having visited Colfax, he wrote : 
"My work has not been in vain. The importance 
of it is more distinctly apparent than at the period 
during which it was wrought. A Scripture appro- 
priate for ever-present use is : ' Forasmuch as ye know 
that your labour is not in vain in the Lord.' " 



CHAPTER X. 

HOME MISSIONARY WORK, CONTINUED. 

1875-88. 

"T'JT'T'HILE Dr. Eells was pastor at Colfax he did 
V V not preach there every Sabbath. Much of 
the time he preached but once a month, alternating 
with preachers of other denominations. When the 
town was small the church services and Sabbath- 
school were conducted on a union basis. Other 
Sabbaths were spent at Lone Pine, Almota, Steptoe 
Butte, Marshall, Stephens, Colville, and other places. 
Especial work was performed also at Dayton, 
Chewelah, Cheney, Spokane Falls, and Medical Lake, 
and he counseled largely in the organization of most 
of the earlier churches of eastern Washington. 

After his resignation, although past threescore and 
ten, he could not leave eastern Washington and rest, 
much as his sons wished him to do so. In September, 
1881, he removed to Medical Lake, which he believed 
would l)e beneficial to his health, and engaged in gen- 
eral missionary work, as his strength permitted. But 
with the snows of that region he found himself too 

248 



HOME missionahy wobk. 249 

far from the railroad. Hence in April, 1882, he 
moved to Cheney, where he built himself a small 
house. For nearly a ^^ear and a half his time was 
spent in a round of labors in nine different places in 
three counties — Lone Pine in Whitman County ; 
Cheney, Sprague, Spangle, Medical Lake, and near 
Cottonwood Springs in Spokane County ; Chewelah, 
Fort Colville, and Colville town in Stevens County. 
Then followed a year in the east for Whitman College, 
after which he still made his home at Cheney, nomi- 
nally, though really it was everywhere throughout the 
region. In July, 1885, he wrote: "I have been 
away from home sixteen nights — at home twelve. 
I am weary in my work, but not tired of it." Again, 
in October, he says: "After an absence of fifteen 
days on a preaching tour I returned. I have con- 
ducted preaching services at each of nine different 
places." Again : " He that goeth forth and weepeth, 
bearing precious seed, shall doubtless come again 
bringing his sheaves with him." September 11, 1885, 
he wrote after a trip to Colfax: " A boy, judged to 
be about ten years old, rode twenty-five miles to get a 
pair of shoes for his sister to wear to service." 

But the severe work and his increased age, with 
his mode of life, began to tell more and more on his 
health, and he and others realized that he must both 
give up some of his labors and also so change his 



250 , FATHER EELL8. 

mode of life that he could have better food than that 
with which he had been providing himself. Hence, in 
October, 1886, he moved to Medical Lake, where he 
was much better taken care of by friends. Here he 
remained about a year and a half, not making such 
severe trips (especially in the winter) as he had been 
doing, though he ever kept busy about his Master's 
work, except when unable to go on account of ill- 
health or snow. His preaching places were mainly 
Medical Lake, Pleasant Prairie, Half Moon, Meadow 
Lake, and Cheney, with occasional trips to Chewelah 
and Colville. 

His work for the different churches, though largely 
parallel in time, is here separated into different church 
sketches : — 

Dayton. In 1875 he visited this place, and talked 
about an organization. In 1877 he again visited the 
place, canvassed it, and obtained the names of those 
who were willing to unite in one. These facts were 
communicated to Dr. Atkinson, who went to the place 
later, and July, 1877, a church was organized there. 
In 1883 Dr. Eells gave the church a bell and parson- 
age, and otherwise aided in securing the church build- 
ing, to the amount in all of over a thousand dollars. 

Chewelah and Colville. Chewelah is a corruption of 
the Indian name Chawelah, and Dr. Eells never could 
reconcile himself to the modern pronunciation. It is 




? f' 






Father Eells' Churches 



1. Congregational Church at Medical Lake. 

2. Congregational Church at Spragne, 

3. Congregational Church at Medical Lake. 

4. Congregational Church at Colfax. 



HOME MISSIONABY WOMK. 251 

the name of a small striped snake, and was applied to 
that place either because the snake abounded there or 
because of the serpentine appearance of the stream. 
Colville was named after a gentleman of the Hudson's 
Bay Company, who, however, spelled his name Col- 
vile. At Chewelah was Dr. Eells' first and last work 
for Washington. 

September 10, 1838, twelve days after arriving at 
Dr. Whitman's, he and Mr. Walker started on an 
exploring tour to locate a station for themselves. 
On the 15th they reached Chewelah, and spent the 
next day, the Sabbath, there. Services were held 
among the Indians. After the services the chief 
addressed his people very earnestly and eloquently. 

Between March, 1839, and June, 1848, Mr. Eells 
performed some work in the valley appropriate to the 
Christian ministry. In the summer of 1874 he visited 
the region and on August 16 preached twice to the 
Indians and twice to the whites there. Some of the 
whites came ten miles to these services, and some of 
the Indians thirty-five or forty. Some who listened 
then had not heard a Protestant sermon for twenty 
years. The next year Mr. Eells visited them again, 
and in 1876 he spent the most agreeable part of the 
summer in the Colville valley at the request of the 
whites, alternating between Colville, the garrison, and 
Chewelah, the latter being twenty-five miles south 



252 FATHEB EELL8, 

of the former. In these places he conducted forty 
services in English during that season. After that, 
with considerable regularity, until 1885 he made semi- 
annual visits to the region except during the fourteen 
months that he was in the East. 

September 14, 1879, four persons, some of whom 
had been residents of Chewelah for twenty-five years, 
but had had no church home, united together in a 
Congregational church. Dr. Eells performed all the 
services. He was their pastor nine years, as long as 
he remained east of the Cascade Mountains, although 
he could be with them only occasionally, at least until 
1885. 

During the summer of 1885 he made monthly trips 
there, holding nineteen services during the season. 
In a paper dated October 21, 1885, which he left, is 
an offer to the people of Colville and vicinity that if 
they would raise a thousand dollars for a Congrega- 
tional church edifice, he would give the same amount. 
Whether this paper was ever sent to them or whether 
they failed to secure the amount the writer does not 
know. In 1892 a church was erected at Chewelah, 
and Dr. Eells was requested to assist in the dedi- 
catory exercises, the people feeling that none but he 
could grace such a happy consummation. Though 
hardly strong enough to make the journey, yet he 
went. He was there fifty-four years from the day on 



HOME MISSIOXABY WOBK. 253 

which he first camped at the place. On the next 
Sabbath, September 18, the church was dedicated, 
Dr. Eells offering the prayer. 

Of this journey he said: "It may be a weakness 
for me, an old man, to go so far, four hundred and 
fifty miles and back to accept the invitation, but if 
anybody else had camped on that spot and held serv- 
ices there fifty-four years previous, perhaps he would 
have the same weakness." 

November 24 he wrote : " During the night dreamed 
I was laboring in behalf of the people of Chewelah." 

His last important act for any church was the pro- 
curing of a bell from New York for this church. It 
was paid for a few days before his death, and he then 
told his pastor that his work was done. Said Rev. 
L. H. Hallock at his funeral : "Its first tones in eastern 
Washington will ring out a tender requiem — nay, 
rather a glorious tone of rejoicing for the work he has 
accomplished, and the crown of life he has gone to 
wear on high." 

Mr. George F. C. McCrea, of that church, says : 
" He made no gift towards the building, as he had 
never been requested to do so. I feel satisfied that 
if he had been he would gladly have aided us, for 
he was always ready to donate in such ways. I am 
glad I spoke to him about the bell, and that he so 
cheerfully acquiesced in my desire, I thank God for 



254 FATHEB EELLS. 

the work which he did here, of which our church is a 
monument." 

Cheney. Previous to 1881 Deacon G. R. Andrus, 
whose home was near Cheney, had held a Sabbath- 
school near that place which was afterwards moved to 
the town. The question then was, " Can a church be 
organized?" It was done Februar}^ 20, 1881, by Dr. 
Eells in a hotel over a barroom, with nine members, 
three males and six females, and was the first church 
of any denomination in the place. He was its pastor 
until the ordination of Mr. Clarke the next winter. 

The next question was to erect a building. Dr. 
Eells prepared a subscription paper and headed it with 
five hundred dollars. Others subscribed. It was a 
struggle, yet it was carried forward. A contract w^as 
made for fifteen hundred dollars. The first five hun- 
dred were easily paid ; the Church Building Society 
had promised to furnish the last five hundred ; the 
second payment was the hard work. The day on 
which that payment was to be made was one of 
anxiety. Deacon Andrus went about the place trying 
to obtain assistance. About noon he and Dr. Eells 
met to see the result of their united effort. There 
was no lack. It seemed wonderful. That afternoon 
he left for Lone Pine and camped by a tree at night. 
As he sat by the tree and thought of the day's work 
and the progress that had been made in regard to 



HOME MISSIONABY WOBK. 255 

the church edifice, his heart overflowed with gratitude. 
To him the providences had been marked, the indica- 
tions of the divine favor were clear. 

Still the fifteen hundred dollars neither seated, fur- 
nished, nor papered the building. This with the lots 
required five hundred more, and of this Dr. Eells 
gave more than two hundred. The building, however, 
was paid for at the time of its dedication, December 
18, 1881. At that time Dr. Eells preached the ser- 
mon and the same evening gave the following charge 
and right hand of fellowship to its pastor, F. T. 
Clarke, at his ordination : — 

CHARGE AT THE ORDINATION OF REV. F. T. CLARKE. 

'' This is a true saying, If a man desire the office of 
a bishop, he desireth a good work. 

"Give attendance to reading, to exhortation, to 
doctrine. Meditate upon these things ; give thyself 
wholly to them, that they profiting may appear unto 
all. 

*' Thou, man of God, flee worldly entanglements, 
and follow after righteousness, godliness, faith, love, 
patience, meekness. 

" Fight the good fight of faith; lay hold on eternal 
life, whereunto thou art also called, and hast professed 
a good profession . 

"I give thee charge in the sight of God that thou 



256 FATHEB EELLS. 

search diligently the oracles of truth. Deep, hard 
study will be indispensable. Strive to obtain holy 
illuniination ; thus shalt thou bring from the divine 
treasury things new and old. Feed the people with 
knowledge and understanding. Hold fast the form of 
sound words. Let thy study be thy great laboratory. 
Get grand thoughts of thy work and of thy teaching. 
Formulate cogent sentences. First preach to thyself 
and then to others. One, after a long and useful 
life, as he lay down to die, said to those anticipating 
like work : ' I have never prepared a sermon that did 
not cost me tears.' Arguments bathed in holy emo- 
tion are effective. 

"Allow me to add. Please test the efficacy of 
prayer. I here express the belief that the results of 
your ministerial work will be graduated largely accord- 
ing to the use you make of this instrumentality. One, 
who under God had turned many unto righteousness, 
after death was observed to have callous knees. 
Those knees were a revelation regarding the secret 
of his power hitherto unexplained. Let spiritual 
unction, thus obtained, be thy badge known and 
read of all. 

"I charge thee before God and the Lord Jesus 
Christ, preach the Word ; be instant in season, out of 
season ; reprove, rebuke, with all longsuffering and 
doctrine. 



HOME MISSIONABY WOBK. 257 

''In meekuess instruct those who oppose themselves, 
if God, peradventure, will give them repentance to 
the acknowledgment of the truth." 

RIGHT HAND OF FELLOWSHIP. 

" Friendship is sweet. Christian communion is pre- 
cious. Full enjoyment of the fellowship of the saints 
is heavenly. Assurance of the fellowship of the 
churches is a rich boon. 

"In behalf of the churches invited to be represented 
in the ecclesiastical council here convened, I extend 
this right hand to yourself. Brother Clarke. We are 
true yokefellows with you in the kingdom and patience 
of Jesus Christ. The belief is that severally and col- 
lectively we are heirs of God and joint heirs with 
Christ to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled, 
and that fadeth not away. That in realization will be 
the fruition of the highest type of fellowship." 

Dr. Eells also gave a bell to this church, so tliat in 
all his gifts to it were over eleven hundred dollars. 
Subsequently he moved to the place, Mr. Clarke having 
resigned in the spring of 1882, and was again chosen 
its pastor, although much of the work fell on Rev. 
F. V. Hoyt, a licensed minister, who lived there. He 
remained as its pastor for two years. 

In 1884 the bell cracked. He ordered it sent back 
to West Trov, N. Y., paying fifty dollars for the 



258 FATHEB EELLS. 

exchange and the freight from St. Paul to West Troy 
and back. Through Dr. Eells' acquaintance with the 
president of the North Pacific Railroad Company it 
was transported free the rest of the way. 

He continued to supply this church more or less, 
especially when it had no pastor, as long as he remained 
in eastern Washington, and advised in regard to it 
and prayed for it as long as he lived. 

After he left eastern Washington his journal says : 

"August 27, 1888. I pray much for the divine 
approval of my work at Cheney and Medical Lake." 

" February 25, 1891. Have been to Tacoma to pay 
interest money on a note against the Congregational 
church at Cheney." 

" March 4. I have written to J. E. Thomas at 
Cheney. I am trying to encourage the friends of the 
Congregational church there to pay their indebtedness 
and be hopeful. I expect there is a bright future for 
them." 

The indebtedness here spoken of was on account of 
the parsonage, which was likely to be sold, and Dr. 
Eells worked earnestly against this being done, two or 
three years after he had left the region and moved to 
Tacoma. 

Spokane. Dr. Eells first visited this place in 1874, 
when but two white women were in it. He afterwards 
preached there at times. A church was organized 



HOME MISSIONARY WORK. 259 

May 22, 1879, and their next great step was to erect 
a building. They were then worshiping in a school- 
house twenty-six by forty feet, and thought thai a 
church of the same size would be large enough. Dr. 
Eells advised them to make it ten feet longer, and 
promised them two hundred dollars. It was built the 
same size as the one at Chene}^ thirty by fifty, at a 
cost of two thousand dollars. Afterwards he gave 
this church a bell, then some books, and more money, 
amounting to five hundred dollars in all. At its dedi- 
cation, December 20, 1881, the day after the one at 
Cheney was dedicated, he offered the dedicatory 
prayer, Dr. Atkinson preaching the sermon. He 
counseled it through troublous times in 1882-83, and 
for a short time in 1883 was its pastor. 

The two bells for Cheney and Spokane arrived at 
the depot at Cheney at the same time. Outsiders at 
that place played a trick. They held up the two bells 
and tested them by striking each one. They made 
their choice, but it proved to be the poorer bell of the 
two, the poorest that Dr. Eells ever bought. All the 
rest have done good service, but that one had to be 
returned. 

The people of Spokane have since built the first 
granite church in the State, though not the first stone 
one, at a cost of forty thousand dollars. The bell 
which the people of Cheney rejected has gone on to 



260 FATHER EELLS. 

that church. Among the memorial windows of the 
church is one with the following inscription ; — 

GUSHING EELLS. 
Always abounding in ^ood works. 

Sprague. In 1839, when Messrs. Walker and Eells 
were moving from Walla Walla to Tshimakain, March 
14, they camped near this place. Here Mr. Walker 
was kicked by a horse, which so injured him that they 
could not move camp that day. It was a suitable time 
for making spiritual preparation for their work. Mr. 
Eells walked to a point overlooking the present town 
site and spent a season in meditation and prayer. 

After that during the next nine years this was a 
convenient camping place. At different times Mr. 
Eells spent two Sabbaths there, one in 1842, when the 
mission families were on their way to the annual meet- 
ing of the mission at Dr. Whitman's. Many prayers 
were offered there at these times. 

When Dr. Eells learned that a town was to be 
located at this place on the railroad, thrilling emotions 
filled his mind. The past came to him. Hence he 
thought that he had a duty to do for that place. 
There on the fourteenth of April, 1881, he conducted 
the first Protestant services ever held in the place. 
The chapel was the dining-room of the hotel. For 
more than a year he preached there at different times 



HOME MI8S10NABT WOBK. 261 

until June 18, 1882, when he organized a Congrega- 
tional church there of five members and became its 
pastor, a position which he occupied for two years. 
The same year he built at his own expense a Union 
Sabbath School Hall there on a lot owned by himself. 
In March, 1882, Dr. Eells called at the home of Mr. 
S. D. Stephens and wife, members of the church at 
Colfax. Mrs. Stephens had been more efficient in 
effecting the church organization than any other per- 
son, although living nine miles distant. She gave him 
a dollar and said: " I wish this to be applied in the 
erection of a church edifice in Sprague." The reason 
of her giving it was because she had a sister living 
there. The sum was small, but there were circum- 
stances connected with it which made it very sacred. 
A young man, a lawyer, was living not far from them, 
trying to secure land by living on it. He called on 
Mrs. Stephens for food. Ham and bacon were weighed 
and passed to him. She wrote with chalk on the wall 
of the building, a log building that she frequented 
daily, the figures indicating the transaction. She said : 
"I never look upon those figures without my heart 
going up in prayer to God in behalf of that young man. 
During the past winter there is reason to believe that he 
has become a new man in Christ Jesus. The evidence 
thereof is to myself so gratifying that I wish to make 
this thank-offering." 



262 FAfHEB EELLS. 

This was the first dollar given for the erection of 
the Congregational church building at Sprague. Dr. 
Eells said: "That dollar, when the circumstances 
shall be known regarding it, will bring other dollars ; " 
and her pound did gain more than ten pounds. Her 
two girls had previously given Dr. Eells fifty and 
twenty-five cents eacli. With their consent, he placed 
this with the dollar from their mother. She afterwards 
added another dollar. That dollar soon increased to 
thirty-three dollars — thirty-three fold. 

Besides aiding in erecting the church building here, 
he gave this church a bell and parsonage site. 

The house was built, but there was a debt on it. 
The time was near when this must be paid, or the 
churcli would be sold under the hammer. In the 
emergency Rev. N. F. Cobleigh went to St. Paul, 
obtained wiiat was necessary, and returned just before 
the expiration of the time when the property would 
have been sold. Dr. Eells gave in all to this church 
more than seven hundred and fifty dollars. 

Pleasant Prairie. This church had been organized 
November 1, 1885, with nine members, by Deacon 
G. R. Andrus, but had never had a regular pastor until 
the spring of 1887, when Dr. Eells went there regu- 
larly from Medical Lake. He went there during the 
severe winter of 1887-88, when the snow was very 
deep. Says Mr. G. T. Belden, of that church: " He 



HOME MISSIONABY WOBK. 263 

seemed to enjoy bis work here aud was always a wel- 
come and pleasant visitor at our house, where he made 
himself especially agreeable to the children by telling 
incidents of his missionary work among the Indians." 

3Iedical Lake. Before Dr. Eells moved to this place 
in 1881, he preached there as one of his stations. It 
was not, however, until after his removal from the 
place in 1882 that he organized a church there. This 
was done September 9, 1883, with five members. Of 
this he continued pastor until 1888, though living 
there only about a year and a half, from 1886 to 1888. 
Though often absent, his heart was, however, with the 
church. Thus May 28, 1886, he wrote : " During the 
night I was exercised in agonizing prayer with refer- 
ence to my work at Medical Lake. The intensity of 
desire was beyond ordinary experience." 

During his last year here, the infirmities of age were 
coming on him, so that he was hardly able to bear the 
trials which came in his work. Denominational zeal 
was especially trying to him. In regard to this he 
said of himself that he was a Congregatioualist from 
the crown of his head to the sole of his feet, and yet 
he added : "I have been scrupulously careful not to 
proselyte. I believe that I have not at any time urged 
an individual to join a Congregational church who 
had a preference for some other church, when there 
was an opportunity for the one to be gratified. If there 



264 FATHEB EELLS. 

were no other church near, I have in a few cases sug- 
gested the propriety of an individual becoming con- 
nected with a Congregational church temporarily, and 
that when there should be an opportunity, if so desired, 
to make a change." 

Rev. J. Edwards said of him : " He was not a Con- 
gregational propagandist. I know of several locali- 
ties wliere he preached gratuitously, but when others 
would come in, before it was necessary, he would give 
up the field very much grieved. He abominated sec- 
tarianism, but loved everything that pertained to the 
Church of Christ." 

He was sorely tried when now he met those who 
believed in denominational comity for all denomina- 
tions except the Catholics and their own, and that if 
a strong church of another denomination existed in a 
town, and the prospect was that a church of their 
order could be organized and become equally stroug, 
though this might involve the overthrow of the other 
church, that the organization should be effected, and 
that its prospects alone should be considered, and the 
effect on any other church in operation should not be 
taken into account. On this point he wrote the follow- 
ing at different times : — 

"March 17, 1887. Human judgment is erring, 
especially where there is personal interest. With or 
without reason, I have believed that jealousy and 



HOME MISSIONARY WOBK. 265 

denominational zeal have stirred up antagonism to 
m3^self. I have felt it keenly, but have been sustained 
and comforted. 

" August 22, 1887. One of the most deeply afflict- 
ing experiences of my work in Whitman, Spokane, and 
Stevens counties has been antagonism, the resultant of 
unreasonable denominational zeal. 

"January 12, 1888. I am humbled by the remem- 
brance of my mistakes, errors, sins. The ill-treat- 
ment I have received, the resultant of denominational 
zeal, may be the rebuke of a gracious heavenly Father 
and loving Saviour. 

" March 20, 1888. My understanding is that Satan 
is suffered to buffet me. I turn to Hebrews 2 ; 18 ; I 
repeat the words, ' For in that he himself hath suf- 
fered being tempted, he is able to succour them that 
are tempted.' 

'* March 21. If I judge correctly, during the night 
I was exercised with strong temptation and agonizing 
prayer. The tempter would have me renounce my 
faith and hope in God. During two weeks he has 
been suffered to exercise almost miraculous power to 
move my anchorage. I suffer from the conflict, but 
have conquered. The words, ' For I have kept the 
ways of the Lord, and have not wickedly departed from 
my God' (Psalm 18 : 21), were brought to my mind ; 
also Psalm 6:9,' The Lord hath heard my supplica- 



266 FATHER EELLS. 

tion ; the Lord will receive my pra3^er.' I claim that I 
may appropriate them." 

These trials, with failing health and old age, caused 
him to believe that his active work in eastern Wash- 
ington should be brought to a close. He had often 
thought of it before, for his strength was unequal to 
the work crowding upon him. As early as 1882 church 
lots were offered him in two places, but he did not see 
how he could do anything in either place. In 1885 he 
WTOte : " 'You are doing too much' is said, and then 
more is asked of me." But now he saw that he must 
lay down the heavier burdens, consequently May 6, he 
presented the following resignation to the church : — 

"I believe that according to my ability I have 
endeavored to serve my Maker and my fellows in 
preaching the gospel of Christ. I have been willing 
to my power, 3'ea, and beyond my power to labor in 
the performance of this work. I am not conscious of 
having knowingly shunned to declare all the counsel 
of God. I am persuaded that I have practiced exces- 
sive earnestness and personally injurious self-denial. 
The love of Christ has constrained me to endeavor 
self-sacrificingly to save souls. The zeal of the Lord's 
house has eaten me up. The apparent smallness of 
favorable results of my work has caused great 
thoughts of heart, great searchings of heart. I firmly 
believe that, though imperfect, I have endeavored to 



HOME MISSIOXABY WOBK. 267 

be faithful. Possibly in the future time, and in the 
unending future, results may appear modified. 

" My conviction is that I am not able to continue to 
perform gospel work as heretofore. The result of 
deliberate consideration is that my residence in eastern 
Washington Territory should terminate at the earliest 
practicable date ; consequently it is needful that my 
connection with you as a church be dissolved. There- 
fore I hereby tender my resignation as your pastor, 
which 3'ou are requested to accept. 

" Your generous bestowals, promotive of my physical 
enjoyment, are gratefully acknowledged. Your sym- 
pathizing kindness in sickness and sorrow has been 
sustaining and comforting. Your prayers in my behalf 
are recorded on high ; on earth they have excited glad 
emotions. May they be returned many fold into the 
bosom of each of the suppliants. 

" In the faith and fellowship of the gospel, your 

unworthy servant, 

GUSHING EELLS.'» 

A few days later he received the following, which he 
termed a " gratifying reply " : — 

Whereas^ our beloved pastor, Rev. Gushing Eells, 
who has labored with us and for us so faithfully for four 
years, has been led to offer his resignation, desiring the 
dissolution of his relationship with us as pastor, and 



268 FATHEB EELLS. 

Whereas^ be has been granted the privilege for so 
many years of usefulness in the vineyard of the Lord, 
as a pioneer missionary, and has arrived at that stage 
of life when relief from care and responsibility seems 
reasonable and imperative, 

Resolved., that we, as members of the First Congre- 
gational Church of Medical Lake, recognize God 
gratefully in his goodness in granting us the intimate 
acquaintance and fellowship, and able and scriptural 
instruction of so devoted a minister of the Lord Jeho- 
vah, for so long a period. 

Resolved., that we accept the resignation with a deep 
feeling of regret and sadness, realizing that our loss is 
great, yet we reverently submit to the providence of 
him who ordereth all thmgs well, and in such a 
manner as to work together for good to them that 
love him. 

Resolved., that we shall alwa3'S remember him with 
great satisfaction, and always feel our indebtedness to 
him for spiritual help and comfort, and shall follow 
him with our best wishes, and ever pray God to pre- 
serve and protect him for many more years to come, 
and that his path may shine brighter and brighter and 
brighter unto the perfect day. Wishing him grace, 
mercy and peace, 

MARGARET J, McDOUALL, 

(Jhwrch Clerk, 



HOME MISSIONARY WOBK. 269 

Thus, after almost fifty years of active service on 
the Pacific Coast, he resigned his last pastorate and 
left Medical Lake May 19, with the following entry 
in his journal : — 

"This P.M. I leave Medical Lake. Marked kind- 
ness has been shown me by precious friends. Inex- 
pressible sorrow and anguish have been experienced by 
the words and acts of others. 1 think it not unlikely 
their conduct is largely attributable to ignorance and 
erroneous belief. Doubtless I am sensitive.'* 

He went to the Puyallup Reservation, near Tacoma, 
to the residence of his older son. 

Two trips more to that place in 1889 and 1891, while 
east of the Cascade Mountains in connection with the 
commencements, and trustees' meetings of Whitman 
College, some pecuniary assistance, his letters and his 
prayers, ended his work for that church. But the 
following from his journal siiows that while absent in 
the body his heart was still there : — 

" September 7, 1888. I pray much for the divine 
approval of my work at Cheney and Medical Lake. 
I have great searchings of heart. I make frequent, 
request that the seal of divine approval be affixed to 
my work at Cheney and Medical Lake. 

"August 19, 1889. I have ordered an eight hun- 
dred ])ound bell to be forwarded to Rev. David Wirt 
at Medical Lake. 



270 FATHEB EELLS, 

''October 19, 1889. In my dreams and waking 
moments I am at Medical Lake. 

"April 14, 1891. Father, be pleased to give me 
submission. Be pleased to set the seal of approbation 
on my work at Cheney and Medical Lake." 

In addition to the bell he gave the church at Medical 
Lake an organ. 

In regard to this whole home missionary work of 
Dr. Eells, Dr. Atkinson wrote as early as 1879 in his 
report as Superintendent of Home Missions for this 
region : — 

" Pastor Eells, who for more than forty years has 
labored as a minister and teacher in Oregon and 
Washington, still supports himself for the most part, 
while always a welcome guest among any of the fami- 
lies of his people. More than any other man he has 
toiled and prayed for the people — Indians and whites 
— of that far upper country, and his work is finding 
its reward now in his own ripening age. Known and 
trusted and loved among them all, his power for good 
increases with years. His counsel is sought and 
heeded in the plans of education and religion, and not 
infrequently in the affairs of business. In his care 
the missionary enterprises of that whole region will 
ever find a wise friend and helper, and his church has 
good prospect of growth and strength." 

This was the tribute of him who has been styled the 



SOME MIS8I0NABT WOBK. 271 

" Bishop of Congregationalism on the Pacific Coast" 
to his friend who has been called "the Apostle to 
Washington." 

As a result of these labors, less than a 3"ear after 
Dr. Eells' death, Rev. J. Edwards, of Spokane, wrote : 
"It is worthy of mention that the Lord seems espe- 
cially to have blessed the churches in which he was 
interested. I consider that the Colfax, Sprague, 
Cheney, and Medical Lake churches have been espe- 
cially blessed. They are leading churches to-day, 
although they have had much with which to contend. 
And the hold we have had in Stevens County is to be 
attributed mainly to his early labors. We have more 
churches there (six) than any other two denomina- 
tions." 

Somewhat similar remarks have been made in regard 
to Whitman County by a Presbyterian clergyman. 



CHAPTER XI. 



LAST DAYS. 



1888-93. 



DR. EELLS' retirement did not mean entire ces- 
sation from ministerial work. He held services 
once or twice a month at Clover Creek and Prairie- 
side, about twelve miles from Tacoma, quite regularly 
for three summers. He also preached occasionally 
and held Bible services at the Puyallup Reservation, 
and he richly enjoyed preparing for these. Of this 
work he wrote, April 21 to 25, 1889 : "I have com- 
menced writing on the Sabbath-school lesson. It is 
like daily food. I rejoice in the study of the divine 
Word. 1 regard it as an inexpressible privilege thus 
to write." 

August 29, 1888, the fiftieth anniversary of his 
arrival in Washington was celebrated at his residence 
at the Puyallup Agency by his children, grand- 
children, and a few friends. That morning Dr. Eells 
and all his descendants met, the first time all had ever 
done so. There were fifteen of them ; namely. Dr. 
Eells, Agent Eells, wife, and six daughters, of the 

272 



LAST DAYS, 273 

Puyallup Reservation, and Rev. M. Eells, wife, and 
four sons, of the Skokomisli Reservation. After 
breakfast an artist took a picture of all of them. 

After dinner Rev. R. S. Stubbs, Rev. S. H. 
Cheadle, Mrs. A. M. Palmer, and Mr. G. W. Bell, 
having come out to pay their respects to Dr. Eells 
on the completion of this semi-centennial on the 
Pacific coast, a very pleasant afternoon v^as spent 
together. 

Rev. Myron Eells read a paper in regard to the 
ancestry of the Eells family from the time the first 
one came to America from England in 1630, and 
showed a photograph, taken from an old painting, of 
Major Samuel Eells, the progenitor of the family. 

The following mementos were also shown : a copy 
book of Mrs. M. F. Eells, very neat and in good con- 
dition, dated 1835 ; a letter written by her to her sister 
in Massachusetts from Walla Walla, in October, 1838 ; 
three of her certificates for teaching school, all of 
them over fifty years old, one of them being sixty 
years old ; a lancet and penknife which Dr. Eells 
brought across the plains fifty years previous ; a 
money purse and leather trunk of Mrs. Eells, which 
also rode horseback across the continent at that time ; 
a New England primer, spelling book, and Testament, 
which Agent Eells read and studied over forty years 
previous. 



274 FATHEB EELLS, 

Doctor Eells spoke of the time when mails came by 
way of Cape Horn and the Sandwich Islands once in 
six months, the newest papers being six months and 
the oldest twelve months old ; also, of the early days, 
wiien, living near the Spokane River, he had traveled 
one hundred and forty miles to put a letter in the 
post office ; and that often he was two weeks in going 
after his mails and in returning. 

Refreshments were next served, after which the 
company joined in singing several favorite hymns, 
such as : — 

I love thy kingdom, Lord. 
God is the refuge of his saints. 
When he cometh. 
Silently the shades of evening. 

Prayer was offered by Chaplain Stubbs, the doxology 
was sung, and the benediction pronounced by Dr. 
Eells. 

In 1890 he arrived at the age of fourscore and 
made on his birthday the following entry in his 
journal : — 

'' This is the eightieth anniversary of my mortal 
life. I have anticipated it with thoughtful interest. 
At intervals of varying length I have been impressed 
with the conviction that probably I shall live to the 
return of another like da}^ I have read the short 



LAST DAYS, 275 

sermoD pronounced at the funeral of Dr. Atkinson. 
I note the word rest. My sensation is largely that 
of weariness. The idea of rest is welcome. I judge 
that in fact I have been constant in excessive labors. 
Possibly a long rest would be advantageous. I 
would attempt to do more or less as it shall accord 
with the divine will. I desire to renew the consecra- 
tion of my powers and possessions to the service and 
glory of God. I am penetrated with a sense of per- 
sonal unworthiness. Remembrance of sins of earlier 
and later years is humiliating. I hope in the pardon- 
ing mercy of a forgiving God. Blessed Jesus, be 
pleased to cleanse me by thy blood." 

That evening his sons and friends gathered to con- 
gratulate him in a sacred service. 

In May, 1890, he made his last trip to Skokomish. 
While there he baptized his youngest grandchild, Roy 
Whitman, who had been named in memory of Dr. 
J. E. Roy, of Chicago, and of Dr. Marcus Whitman. 
He had previously baptized all of his ten other grand- 
children, and now, more than eighty years older than 
the youngest, he administered the same rite to him. 
Only one died before the grandsire. 

He enjoyed greatly the meetings of the Tacoma 
Ministerial Alliance, which were held on Monday fore- 
noon. It was a kind of society which was very con- 
genial to him, and yet of which, in so full a measure, 



276 FATHER SELLS. 

he had been deprived during the whole of his previous 
life. 

In 1891, in commemoration of his eighty-first birth- 
day, they addressed him the following communica- 
tion : — 

Tacoma, Wash., February 23, 1891. 

To THE Rev. Gushing Eells, d.d. 

Dear Father and Brother^ — The Ministerial Alli- 
ance of Tacoma feels its utter inability to express 
in a befitting manner the sentiments of love and vener- 
ation awakened by your chaste and characteristic note 
of the 16th, in which you kindly allow us to know that 
the same marks the eighty-first anniversary of your 
birth. Eighty-one years of mortal life ! Sixty-six 
years of life "hid with Christ in God"! Fifty-five 
years spent in proclaiming " the unsearchable riches of 
Christ" ! Fift^^-three years of active ministerial service 
on the northwest Pacific coast ! This is, indeed, a 
wonderful record, and we are deeply impressed by it 
and grateful to God, whose grace has permitted and 
whose spirit has inspired it. In it you stand among 
us the peerless man, who will leave no successor upon 
the field of his lifelong service. 

And now, venerable father, whom none could either 
coax or compel to say one word in his own praise, you 
must be silent while we, your favorite sons, speak your 
merited praise. There is in human hearts a natural 



LAST DAYS. 277 

reverence for that which is old, and that reverence is 
spontaneously granted to virtuous old age. 

Dead must be the heart, the bosom cold, 
That warms not with affection for the old. 

Inanimate things, representing nothing but physical 
duration, — the sight of a mountain peak, silent from 
the hush of centuries ; the vision of the ocean, whose 
horizon has marked that of the world since creation's 
dawn, — these fill us with awe; and when, as to-day, 
we look upon one who has lived over a long reach of 
years, his face and form take on something of the 
dignity of the eternal hills and of the silent sea. We 
share with Tischendorf in his feeling of reverence 
when he gazed on the manuscript of the New Testa- 
ment in the Monastery of St. Catherine, realizing that 
the characters which met his ej^es were traced in the 
fourth or fifth century of our era, and that he stood in 
the presence of a volume, stained and torn, but which 
in its age and character was venerable and beyond 
price. Old age in you, sir, is a volume which we 
reverence, as do all who know you. In your life, what 
varied and precious tales, tales of love and duty, are 
recorded ! The innumerable incidents of far-away 
youth, of mature manhood and of later age, that make 
up the record of a long life, filled with highest useful- 
ness, are there recorded in imperishable characters. A 



278 FATHER EELLS. 

ship, voyaging long, pounded about by the merciless 
waves of the sea, is a noble sight as she approaches 
her anchorage. Glorious is the close of day, when in 
the mellow light of the setting sun all things grow 
still and solemn. But sublimer than either is the 
approaching close of a long, just, kind, and useful 
life. 

We come not to anomt you " aforehand for the 
burying " ; we are here to break over your devoted 
head the alabaster box of loving appreciation while 
yet we have you with us. We cannot approach you 
with " weak praise." You have shown us that to grow 
older is not, necessarily, to " grow old." Some are old 
and withered and desiccated from their birth. Others 
are ever young. Winter snows their heads but sends 
no breath of frost to their warm blood. They go back 
to their Creator beautiful in renewed youth, strong in 
immortal vigor. Of such you are. 

You have taught us lessons of hope. Never have 
we learned from you that the world grows worse, or 
that tbe kingdom of the Christ is about to topple over. 
In the name of Almighty God and his coming king- 
dom you have kept heart and have been able to discern 
that the golden age is not in the past, but in the future. 

Nearly a century ago it was written : — 

Age is the heaviest burden man can bear, 
Compounded of disappointment, pain, and care. 



LAST DATS, 279 

And ByroD, prematurely old, wrote at the age of 
thirty-six : — 

My days are in the yellow leaf. 

The flower and fruits of love are gone ; 
The worm, the canker, and the grief 

Are mine alone. 

But DO man who has "walked with God" has any 
such realization of life. Men of God can say : "My 
inward man is renewed day by day. My senses grow 
dull, but thoughts are clear, convictions are firm, and 
hopes are bright. Sad memories have lost their bitter- 
ness, holy ones have put on a heavenly beauty. The 
day's work is nearly done and home is near." 

John Bunyan was in middle life when he wrote 
the Pilgrim's Progress. Yet he put the Beulah land 
last, at the close of the journey and in sight of the 
celestial city. Perhaps he had seen this in the life of 
some aged saint, or his spiritual instincts told him of 
it. Certainly the conception is a beautiful one. The 
air was sweet and fragrant with flowers, and vocal 
with the voice of the turtle dove and the singing of 
birds. The laud was out of the reach of Giant De- 
spair and far from the sight of Doubting Castle. Here 
Pilgrims met the Shining Ones, plainly saw the pearly 
gates, and were called "the redeemed of the Lord." 

You have reached the Beulah land. We call you 



280 FATBEB EELLS. 

"I think," said George William Curtis, "to know 
one good old man — one who through the chances and 
mischances of a long life has carried his heart in hand 
like a palm branch, waving all discords into peace — 
helps our faith in God and in each other more than 
many sermons." In you, sir, we know such a one. You 
are influential in all our gatherings, a force, not a fossil. 
A godly ancestry, the culture of college and seminary, 
and better still, the culture that comes from a life-walk 
with God, these are behind you and in you. We have 
no power to honor reverently any of our number which 
we do not command to pay its first tribute to you. May 
your remaining days on earth be the serenest, happiest, 
most attractive and most blessed of your life. " The 
Lord bless thee, and keep thee : the Lord make his face 
shine upon thee, and be gracious unto thee : the Lord lift 
up his countenance upon thee, and give thee peace." 

Assuring you, dear sir, that the pleasant labor of 
preparing this address was imposed upon us by the 
Ministerial Alliance of Tacoma (of which you are an 
honored member) , and that the same has been adopted 
by unanimous vote of the Alliance, we are happy to 
inscribe ourselves, your brethren in the Lord. 
B. S. MacLafferty, 

President. 
Chaplain R. S. Stubbs, 

Secretary. 



LAST DATS. 281 

Dr. Eells replied, under great stress of feeling, with 
some most interesting remarks on the advantages and 
enjoyments of a Christian old age. 

In September, 1892, he went to Chewelah to assist 
in dedicating the church there, and later offered the 
dedicatory prayer at the laying of the corner stone for 
the Plymouth Congregational church at Seattle, the 
last service of the kind he performed. 

But weakness crept on, and he was often reminded 
that his remaining days must be few. In October, 
1889, his left side w^as partially paralyzed. Although 
in the main he recovered so as to use it quite easily, 
yet he never controlled it as freely as the other side. 

In March, 1891, his only remaining brother, Charles, 
came from Illinois to visit him, his son, and nephews 
— his first trip to the Pacific coast. This brother 
arrived at the home of Dr. Eells, but was soon taken 
with a relapse of la grippe and died there at the age 
of nearly seventy-two. Dr. Eells was seized by the 
same disease almost before his brother died, and it was 
feared that in a few days he would follow. He himself 
thought so and said : " Is it w^'ong to pray that God 
would take away my breath ? " Then he would answer : 
'* Thy will be done ; come quickly, Lord Jesus ! " 

His love ill times past 

Forbids me to think 
He'll leave me at last 

In trouble to sink. 



282 FATHEB EELLS. 

Sometimes the future seemed dark, but he said : 
"And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come 
again, and receive you unto myself ; that where I am, 
there ye may be also." "When Christ, who is our 
life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in 
glory." The Ninety-first Psalm and twenty-second 
chapter of Revelation were especially precious. 

In December, 1891, while driving in Tacoma, he 
was thrown out and run over. No bones were broken, 
but he was considerably injured, and it was strange 
that he was not killed. It took him some time to 
recover. 

He realized that there was but a step between him 
and death. The following entries in his journal give 
his thoughts on the subject : — 

" October 6, 1889. I am feeble ; have been on the 
bed a part of the day. If I mistake not I am 
strongly persuaded that I have endeavored to please 
and honor my Maker and subserve the best interests 
of my fellows. My impression is that my existing 
frailty is the beginning of the end of my mortal life. 
I have no certain idea of the probable speed of my 
expected decline. To myself the favorable results of 
my life work seem small. On account of this impres- 
sion I weep. I am comforted by the conviction that I 
have endeavored faithfully to perform the work that 
I believe was assigned me." 



LAST DAYS. 283 

" October 26. At different periods for years I have 
been impressed with a sense of personal unworthiness 
and guilt. There has been pungent conviction of sin. 
I have not given up my hope in Christ. At times it 
has not afforded me prevailing comfort. I have feared 
to give expression to my unhappiness lest thereb}' 
the enemy would blaspheme. Likely the tempter has 
taken advantage of physical conditions to aggravate 
my misery. I have not continuously enjoyed the com- 
fort that a soul in harmony with the Triune God might 
be expected to possess. During the last night I was 
favored with the assurance of acceptance that is sus- 
taining. It was done in a way that I do not very well 
understand, waking, sleeping, in dreams, in visions. 
I was persuaded that my life work is approved." 

" January 25, 1891. I have clear conviction that 
by the grace of God I have been enabled to serve my 
Maker and fellows with sincerity and faithfulness. 
It seems to me that according to my understanding 
of Scripture my life work must be accepted. With 
earnestness and confidence I plead : ' ' Hear my prayer, 
O Lord. Give ear to my supplications : in thy faith- 
fulness answer me, and in thy righteousness." 

*' March 5. This is the fifty-third anniversary of my 
marriage. I enjoy more vigor than most at the age of 
eighty-one years. I desire to be devoutly grateful for 
the evidence that I shall before long sit down at 



284 FATHEn EELLS. 

tlie marriage supper of the Lamb in my Father'r, 
kingdom." 

"October 9, 1892. My daily reading is instruc- 
tive, entertaining, and promotive of devotion. It is 
a feast of fat things. 

If such the sweetness of the stream, 

What must the fountiiin l>e. 
Where saints and angels draw their bliss, 
' Immediately from thee? 

''October 19. Moderately, I say, if fitted to be 
transferred, I think the bliss of heaven is attractive." 

" November 28. I have a realized conviction of 
failing powers. As the mortal decays, the immortal is 
renewed. If not deceived 1 am joyful in the Triune 
God." 

" December 26. This morning the words, ' Rejoic- 
ing that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for 
his name,' occur to me. To suffer for Christ's sake 
is a privilege." 

" January 5, 1893. I am admonished of my frailty. 
The consideration is not unwelcome." 

" November 23, 1892. I am well and ill inter- 
changeably. I have premonition of dissolution. I 
ask to be spared to complete certain business arrange- 
ments. I am somewhat in doubt whether or not my 
request will be granted." 



LAST DAYS. 285 

This desire was to complete the purchase of a bell 
for the church at Chewelah. There were some unac- 
countable delays which troubled him, but his request 
was granted, and by February the bell was ordered 
and paid for. 

He had been requested many times to write out 
some of the most interesting reminiscences of his life. 
He had found but little time to do it until 1892, when 
he had dictated about all he cared to tell. 

He now, too, stood almost the last of his pioneer 
associates. Dr. and Mrs. Whitman had been killed in 
1847, the former at the age of forty-five, and the latter 
thirty-nine. Mrs. Spalding had died in 1851 at the 
age of forty-four ; Mrs. A. B. Smith in 1855, aged 
forty-one ; Father Spalding in 1874 at the age of 
seventy ; Father Walker in 1877, aged seventy-two ; 
Mrs. Eells in 1878, seventy-three ; the second Mrs. 
Spalding in 1880, seventy-one ; Mrs. W. H. Gray in 
1881, seventy-one; Rev. A. B. Smith in 1886, aged 
seventy-six ; and Hon. W. H. Gray in 1889, seventy- 
nine. Only Mrs. Walker was left, who was more than 
a year younger than Dr. Eells. 

Nearly all with whom he had been associated in his 
early work for the whites had also gone : Rev. Harvey 
Clarke in 1858, and his wife in 1866, each aged fifty- 
one; Mrs. Horace Lyman in 1874, aged fifty-three; 
S. H. Marsh, d.d., in 1879, fifty-three; Mrs. J. S. 



286 FATHEB EELLS. 

Griffin in 1884, seventy-nine ; Rev. H. Lyman in 1887, 
seventy-one; Rev. G. H. Atkinson, d.d., in 1889, 
sixty-nine; Rev. P. B. Chamberlain in 1889, sixty- 
four ; Rev. O. Dickinson in 1892, aged seventy-four. 
He had on December 15, 1892, conducted the 
funeral services of Mr. John Flett, a pioneer of 1841, 
with whom he had been very intimate. He had ex- 
pected some of these, especially Dr. Atkinson, Mr. 
Dickinson and Mr. Flett, to outlive him. Only Rev. 
J. S. Griffin, Mrs, Dickinson, and Mrs. Atkinson, of 
those who came previous to 1853, remained. Dr. 
Eells stood almost alone of all these who had come 
within fifteen years of the time he did — entirely alone 
of all in his adopted State of Washington, the others 
being in Oregon. He thought of those who had gone 
beyond, of his brothers and sisters, of his wife's 
brothers and sisters, all of whom had preceded him, 
and of many others with whom he had been bound in 
Christian work, and many times read the following 
poem : — 

SHALL WE FIND THEM AT THE PORTALS? 

B^ J. E. RANKIN, D.D., WASHINGTON, D. C. 

Will they meet us, cheer and greet us. 
Those we've loved, who've gone before? 

Shall we find them at the portals, 

Find our beautified immortals, 
When we reach that radiant shore? 



LAST DAYS. 287 

Hearts are broken, for some token 

That they live, and love us yet! 
And we ask, " Can those who've left us, 
Of love's look and tone bereft us, 

Though in heaven, can they forget?" 

And we often, as days soften, 

And comes out the evening star. 
Looking westward, sit and wonder, 
Whether, when so far asunder, 

They still think how dear they are I 

Past yon portals, our immortals, 

Those who walk with Him in white. 
Do they, mid their bliss, recall us? 
Know they what events befall us? 

Will our coming wake delight? 

They will meet us, cheer and greet us, 
Those we 've loved, who've gone before; 

We shall find them at the portals. 

Find our beautified immortals. 
When we reach that radiant shore. 

He also looked at death, and copied these verses : — 
DEATH. 

Ah, lovely appearance of death, 

What sight upon earth is so fair? 
Not all the gay pageants that breathe 

Can with a dead body compare. 
Of evils incapable thou. 

Whose relic with envy I see. 
No longer in misery now. 

No longer a sinner like me. 



288 FATHER EELL8, 

HEAVEN. 

High in yonder realms of light 

Dwell the raptured saints above, 
Par above our feeble sight, 

Happy in ImmauuePs love. 
Pilgrims in this vale of tears, 

Once they knew, like us below, 
Gloomy doubts, distressing fears, 

Torturing pain, and heavy woe. 

He had prayed hundreds of times for himself and 
others : " May we come down to the grave like a shock 
of corn fully ripe ! " His prayer had been answered. 
To his friends he still seemed well and about as full of 
life as he had usually been ; but to God he was fully ripe 
for heaven, his work well done, and there was nothing 
left but to be plucked, to be transferred to the realms 
of light. 

On Saturday, February 11, 1893, he wrote in his 
journal: "My feelings impress me with the nearing 
close of my mortal life. Later : I have felt comfort- 
able." That was the last full sentence in his journal, 
in which he had with few exceptions written daily 
during his nearly fifty-five years of work. 

The next day, the Sabbath, he rode to church from 
his son's residence, which was then in Tacoma. Ar- 
riving at the First Congregational Church he partici- 
pated in some of the services. On the way home 
he felt chilled through and through, and on reaching 



LAST DAYS. 289 

home it was thought he had not been clothed warmly 
enough. 

After dinner he went out to feed old Le Blond, and 
in doing so fell and was unable to rise. His niece 
found him later, and he was removed to his room, 
where he remained until Tuesday. It was pneumonia. 
Tuesday and Wednesday he seemed better, and on 
Wednesday he got up and wrote a little. Some friends 
visited him, among others his pastor. Rev. L. H. Hal- 
lock. To him his last words were : " I am very sick. 
I do not know what the issue will be, but I can say : 
' Thy will, O God, be done.' I rest in Him." That 
night he became worse, and a physician was summoned, 
but nothing could be done to save liim. He watched 
the time, until after midnight of the 16th, his birth- 
day, when he asked his granddaughter to write in 
his journal: "Eighty-three years ago to-day I com- 
menced this mortal life." Afterwards he gave some 
directions in regard to his faithful horse, and that was 
his last word. About half -past two he breathed his 
last. He had expressed a wish that he might be per- 
mitted to round out his eighty-third year. This was 
granted, and his eighty-third birthday on earth was 
his first in heaven. 

The funeral services were held on the following 
Sabbath ; first, at the house, where intimate friends 
were present. These were conducted by his younger 



290 FATHER SELLS, 

son, Rev. M. Eells, assisted by Rev. Mr. Smith, of 
Tacoma, and Rev. Mr. Pamment, of the Puyallup 
Indian Reservation. After this, the body was taken 
to the Congregational church, where excellent ad- 
dresses were made by the pastor, Rev. L. H. Hallock, 
Rev. B. S. MacLafferty, president of the Ministerial 
Alliance, Rev. I. Sims, and Rev. Dr. Cherrington of 
the Methodist Episcopal Church, with prayer by Chap- 
lain R. S. Stubbs. 

The next day the body was taken to Seattle, where 
it was met by several of the old pioneers and taken 
to the Congregational church, and addresses were 
made by Rev. Messrs. W. Nutting, S. Green, and Dr. 
A. J. Anderson, late president of Whitman College- 
It was then taken to the cemetery and laid by the side 
of his wife. 

Memorial services were afterward held at Walla 
Walla, where the principal address was made by the 
Rev. J. Edwards, assisted also by President J. F. 
Eaton and Mrs. N. F. Cobleigh, of Whitman College, 
and Dr. A. J. Anderson, its late president ; also, at 
Colfax, where the principal address was made by Rev. 
H. P. James, the pastor, who took the place which it 
was expected would be occupied by Hon. J. A. Per- 
kins, who was unexpectedly called away, Dr. F. M. 
Bunnell also paying a tender and appropriate tribute to 
the memory of his old friend ; also, at Medical Lake, 



LAST DAYS. 291 

where remarks were made by Mr. and Mrs. B. S. 
Dudley, Mr. and Mrs. E. W. Gilkey, and Rev. F. V. 
Hoyt ; at Skokomish, the first church of which he was 
pastor, conducted by his son ; and at Ravenswood, 
near Chicago, 111., where the address was by Rev. 
Marcus Whitman Montgomery, assisted by Dr. J. E. 
Roy, with stereopticon views. 

These widespread services show the estimation in 
which Dr. Eells was held. The following extracts are 
taken from some of these addresses and from notices 
of him in the press. Many of the addresses referred 
to historical events, which have already been em- 
bodied in this narrative. 

Rev. B. S. MacLafferty, president of the Ministerial 
Alliance of Tacoma, spoke of the punctuality of Dr. 
Eells, as especially illustrated in his attendance on 
the meetings of the Alliance. 

Dr. F. B. Cherriugton said that a hero was one who 
had had an opportunity and had been equal to it. 
Dr. Eells had had an opportunity and improved it. 

Rev. L. H. Hallock said : "At the dawn of his 
eighty-third birthday was translated from earth to 
heaven Dr. Gushing Eells, one of God's noblemen ; 
pioneer missionary, friend of humanity, founder of 
Whitman College, and, judged by the test of long, 
unwearied service, entitled as much as any man to the 
Master's greeting, ' Well done, good and faithful 



292 FATHEB EELLS. 

servant : euter thou into the joy of thy Lord ! ' Good 
Father Eells died with the respect of all who knew 
him. He died in peace to meet the reward of an 
honored and faithful servant. If he had sought 
money, he had ample means for making it and abun- 
dant financial abilit}' to amass it ; but he sought a 
higher end than wealth and won it. His work has 
never been heralded ; hardly has it been known save 
by a few ; but it will be revealed and crowned. Fel- 
low citizens of many faiths, who do him homage 
to-day, the burden of his life was to save men, to 
save Washington for God. Promote his work by the 
gift of your soul to God, your state to righteousness." 

Rev. T. Sims thus spoke: "Dr. Eells w^as truly 
an apostolic man. Taking him all in all he was, I 
think, the most Christlike man I have known. As I 
speak these impromptu words, my mind reverts to 
three features in our departed friend's character in 
which he reflected Christ in an eminent degree. 

" The first of these features was his modesty. He 
did not strive nor cry, neither was his voice heard in 
the streets. Ostentation or pretension of any kind 
was w^holly foreign to him. After a long career of 
phenomenal usefulness and achievement, he always 
spoke with rare modesty of what he had done. In 
ministerial gatherings he steadily deferred to his 
younger brethren, contenting himself with very few 



LAST DATS. 293 

words and often prefacing them with some self- 
depreciating remark. The seat he chose was sure to 
be a lowly one, unless watchful friends insisted on his 
' coming up higher.' Indeed his whole demeanor was 
impressive by reason of its simple modesty. His only 
counterpart in this, so far as my personal knowledge 
extends, is the noted principal of Knox College, 
Toronto. Dr. Eells and Dr. Caven I rank together 
as the two most beautifully modest great men it has 
been my privilege to know. 

"A second feature in which he largely reflected 
Christ was his love for service. He was preeminently 
a servant of his generation. How this was mani- 
fested in his long career as a missionary, as a finan- 
cial manager, and as a pliilanthropist has been dwelt 
upon already, and I need not repeat the story. Very 
impressive to me has it been to observe this spirit 
dominating the man in the smallest details. He 
offered himself as a missionary to the Indians in the 
enthusiasm of his youth because he had definitely 
chosen to be a servant to others, and that first choice 
grew into an ingrained habit of life. It was the same 
in small things as in great ; the same in the weakness 
of age as in the ardor of youth and the vigor of his 
brilliant prime ; the same in the family circle as in the 
eye of the gazing world. 

' ' There was a most Christlike submission to the will 



294 FATHEB EELLS. 

of God. ' Well, God's will be doue,' was a very con- 
stant formula on bis lips because it expressed the 
constant attitude of bis soul. He was a servant of 
his ' generation according to the imll of God.' He went 
and came, he spoke or was silent, he desired to live 
longer or depart at once, as it might please the Lord. 
He was very sm-e that God had a will concerning him 
and he was profoundly desirous that the divine pur- 
pose should be accomplished in him and by him. 

" And surely that purpose was accomplished. It 
hardly seems as if his eighty-three years of life could 
have been spent to better purpose. He probably 
filled up the measure of his opportunity as fully as 
could be done. In an important sphere he did what 
was possible and occupied until his Master said : ' It 
is enough ! Come up higher ! ' 

Life's labor done, as sinks the clay, 
Free from its load the spirit flies; 
WMle heaven and earth combine to say: 
' How blest the righteous when he dies I ' " 

Rev. TV. Nutting testified : " Truly he was a patron 
saint. The winds might blow and toss him about, but 
his purposes were so clearly defined in his mind that 
notliing could turn him. I never saw a man with such 
tenacity. An object before him, he would reacli it, if 
it took ten years. When others would have given 



LAST DAYS. 295 

up in despair, he only digged the harder. He knew 
no such word as fail and would keep pegging away 
till victory crowned his efforts." 

Dr. A. J. Anderson said : " Dr. Eells asked aid for 
Whitman College, laying the case before me. On ask- 
ing him what he could do. Dr. Eells replied : ' I will 
pray for you and I will work for you." True to his 
word he went on a money-raising tour, going as far as 
New England. Dr. Eells would always pray and had 
great confidence in the efficacy of prayer. He not 
only prayed in public worship, but his frame of mind 
was such that he prayed at all times. He must have 
had close communion with the Supreme." 

Rev. S. Green had known him since his arrival on 
this coast twenty years previous and had always 
found him a great worker for the Church and promoter 
of Christianity. 

Rev. J. Edwards : " He lived in the atmosphere of 
heaven, and all worldy excitement, the wild rush after 
wealth, had no influence over him. His great ambi- 
tion was to prepare for himself riches in heaven, where 
moth and rust doth not corrupt nor thieves break 
through and steal. How contemptible is the life of 
the selfish worldling as compared with his ! I have 
always looked upon him as the most apostolic charac- 
ter I have ever known." 

Rev. H. P. James: "He camped under the stars 



296 FATBEB EELLS. 

with no other arms than the sword of the Spirit and 
the Bible, meeting supposed hostile Indians, whom he 
never feared, from whom he never met treacher}'. He 
did not seek honor from men, and men honored him. 
He humbled himself, and men have exalted him. As 
his pastor said : ' Pacific University gave him his 
degree of D.D., a gratified and loving constituency of 
disciples gave him his higher title of " Father," and 
God has given him his crown.' " 

The Seattle Post-Intelligencer: "In the death of 
Rev. Gushing Eells the Congregational churches of 
Washington lose one of their grandest and most noble 
characters. His life was devoted to raising the moral 
standard of humanity. He was a man who practiced 
what he preached, and, in the words of a pioneer, 
' His efforts in the days when Washington was a wil- 
derness have contributed largely to the blessings which 
the present people enjoy.' " 

The Tacoma News: "Dr. Eells stands among the 
clergy of the northwest as a man who was altogether 
unique. Of course he can leave no successor. Till 
very recently the degree of his diligence as a clergy- 
man had known little abatement. It does not seem 
possible that any man could have labored any more 
abundantly than he. Money, as a means of minister- 
ing to his own comfort, he has despised. In ministra- 
tions to others he has loved to use it." 



LAST DAYS, 297 

The Tacoma Ledger : " He was very abstemious in 
his habits. Since the age of twenty-four years he 
has used neither tea nor coffee, and was unswerving in 
his crusade against the use of liquor." 

The Occidental Congregationalist : "A company of 
our legislators, sitting in committee at Olympia, de- 
bated whether they should tax church property. One 
of them asked why it ought to be favored. He was 
reminded that there lay not many miles from him the 
mortal remains of a Christian patriarch, Father Eells, 
of venerable memory, through whose efforts and those 
of his colleague, Marcus Whitman, this very state 
in which the legislators sat had been saved to him 
and to America. On the day that rounded eighty- 
three years of life. Gushing Eells left "Washington for 
another home. On the day after his death, a legisla- 
tive committee of the state of Washington, who owed 
their property and their Christian nurture to him, 
determined to favor the churches hecaune of his work. 
And if ever a question was squarely answered, it was 
answered when a gentleman from Tacoma instanced 
the life of Cushing Eells as the reason why Washing- 
ton owes something to the Christian missionary, the 
Christian Church, and the Christian's God. 

** The state legislature adjourned out of respect to 
the memory of James G. Blaine, but, despite the bril- 
liancy of Blaine's talents, the state of Washington at 



298 FATBEE EELLS. 

least owes more to the home missionary than to the 
statesman. And when before the sovereign of the 
universe Father Eells presents his report of the terri- 
tory which he won for the kingdom of heaven, I am 
sure that the plumed knight will not show a better record. 

" Father Eells gave himself for his country even 
more entirely than a soldier gives himself. He was 
the apostle to Washington." 

Deacon G. H. Himes, in The Pacific : " Dr. Eells was 
one of the happiest of men and always full of good 
cheer, even amid most profound difficulties, and to 
those who were privileged to attend the General Asso- 
ciations in either Oregon or Washington when he was 
present — and he rarely missed these helpful gather- 
ings — his presence was like a benediction. The su- 
preme moments of these meetings were those devoted 
to home missionary reports ; and at such a time the 
simple and unostentatious narrative by Dr. Eells of 
his experience would hold the congregations almost 
spellbound." 

Rev. L. H. Hallock, in The Boston Congregationalist : 
"Thus passed away another historic character, one of 
God's noblemen, a man of modest demeanor, inde- 
pendent, and a stranger to fear, energetic, beloved. 
Fifty-five years of unabated fidelity have left their 
lasting mark upon the religious and educational 
interests of Washington, and always for good. 



LAST DAYS. 299 

"Whitman College and many a feeble church and 
many a Christian Indian have lost their best friend. 
Who will commemorate Father Eells and his heroic 
service by an endowment of Whitman College, conse- 
crated to the memory and work of two noble Chris- 
tian heroes, — ' an Eells professorship in Whitman 
College'? Who?" 

Dr. Lyman Abbott, in The Christian Union : "A man 
of great and beautiful character, of unsurpassed con- 
secration, and one to whom the republic of the United 
States owes a far greater debt than to many who have 
occupied a far more conspicuous place in history." 

Professor L. F. Anderson, of Whitman College : 
"But in the grief what an abiding joy for a life so 
enriched from on high ! Not only did he have the cordial 
approval and highest regard of all who ever met him, 
but every one with whom he conversed felt deep in his 
heart the profound goodness and sublime faith that 
animated him. I believe no one ever left his side 
without feeling his inner nature stirred to loftier aspi- 
rations. And may his life and death be an inspiration 
to all of us who follow." 

President J. T. Eaton, of Whitman College: "No 
college in the land has two such names and characters 
at its foundation as Whitman College — Marcus Whit- 
man, M.D., and Cushing Eells, d.d." 

M. E. Strieby, d.d., of New York, secretary of 



300 FATHER EELLS. 

the American Missionary Association: "You must 
find abundant consolation in view of his long life and 
his valuable and incessant labors in behalf of the cause 
of our great Master. May we be faithful and follow 
him as did your father." 

E. E. Strong, d.d., of Boston, editor of The Mis- 
sionary Herald : "His earnestness and spirit of self- 
denial were remarkable. Though his works do follow 
him, the generations yet to come will never know how 
much he accomplished for the welfare of his fellow- 
men," 

Mrs. H. S. Caswell, of New York, editor of The 
Home Missionary: "What a beautiful going home it 
was! — really a translation. What a glorious legacy 
he has left to you, his children ! " 

J. E. Roy, D.D., of Chicago, district secretary of 
the American Missionary Association : " What a glori- 
ous era he has had to live in, and what a glorious 
history he has helped to make in that country ! In no 
eastern pastorate could he have made his influence so 
signally felt as in his home missionary sphere." 

Professor W. D. Lyman, of Whitman College : 
"Amid the selfishness and narrow-mindedness and 
cold-heartedness which surround us, it gives one more 
faith in God and man and progress to see such a con- 
sistent life of steadfast Christian effort." 

Miss Sarah I. Lyman, in The Pacific : " Memory 



LAST DAYS, 301 

takes me back to the years of my childhood. One of 
the first persons appearing there, with a sort of halo 
around her head, as of one of the old Madonnas, is 
that lovely woman, Mrs. Eells. She was my first 
Sunday-school teacher, and many happy hours have 
I passed in the quiet little library of their home in 
Forest Grove, sitting on the floor over a pile of 
Youth's Companions, reading for hours at a time, and 
nibbling such delightful doughnuts (I never tasted any 
except my mother's quite so good). Dear old lady, 
how I loved her ! and well I might, for if ever there 
was a saint on earth she was one. 

"Dr. Eells was a fine example of physical strength 
and of the correctness of the principle of total absti- 
nence not alone from liquor and tobacco, but also tea, 
coffee, cake, and other dainties. He performed an 
amount of labor that most men could not endure. As 
has been well said, his business was to preach the 
gospel, and live it as well. Infidels not only respected 
him, but many were converted through not alone his 
words, but his life. I once heard a lady in speaking 
of him quote this text : ' Behold an Israelite indeed, 
in whom is no guile ! ' 

"Well and nobly did he and his wife, and other 
men and women who came to this coast in an early 
day, not to make money, but to do good, do their 
work. The soil of Oregon and Washington and Call- 



302 FATHEB EELLS. 

foruiti has been coDsecrated by their tread. They are 
nearly all gone now to the shining realms above, 
where tears are all washed away, and ' neither shall 
the sun light on them, nor any heat.' " 

A. H. Bradford, d.d., of Montclah', N. J., who 
assisted in organizing the church at Skokoraish 
in 1874, in an address before the American Home 
Missionary Society in 1881, said : " ' What kind of men 
do they have out there ? ' Men like Father Eells, who 
has traversed those forests until all the Indians know 
him, and all the settlers know him, and all the bears 
and cougars know him, for though he always travels 
unarmed, he always travels unharmed — a man who 
will travel on horseback all day to read the Bible and 
pray with a single family." 

E. B. Parsons, secretary of the faculty of Williams 
College, to Edmund Seymour, of Tacoma : "In behalf 
of Williams College let me express to you and the 
many friends of Rev. Dr. Cushing Eells our profound 
sense of loss in the death of this heroic son of the 
college and our great admiration for those qualities 
of far-sighted enthusiasm and painstaking zeal, by 
which his life and services have brought helpfulness 
to the nation and to humanity, and honor to the 
college." 

Hartford Seminary Record : "To-day the only living 
graduate of the class of 1837 is G. W. Bassett, Dr. 



LAST DAYS. 303 

Eells' classmate in college and semiuaiy, but two years 
his junior. No member of an earlier class now lives, 
and only one graduate of the seminary is of greater 
age than was Dr. Eells at the time of his death. 

"•He exemplified in spirit and in deed the purposes 
and performances of the early settlers of New England. 
It is true of him to a degree impossible in the changed 
civilization of the close of the nineteenth century. The 
stedfast courage which feared no unknown danger 
and shunned none, the loving desire to bring the 
heathen red man to Christ, the attempt made, with 
the resultant building of the foundations of a white 
civilization, the strong national feeling and sound 
political sagacity, the love of learning and the belief 
in education, the toil for the college side by side with 
the labor in the church, the profound trust in God and 
in his purposes for this land, the entire reliance at all 
turns of personal fortune on the Divhie Providence, 
the readiness for labor of any sort, the utter simplicity 
of character, and the almost limitless capacity for 
joyful self-denial for the achievement of work believed 
to be God-appointed — these are traits which we have 
come to accept as typicnl of the settlers of New Eng- 
land, and which were embodied in him. They were 
traits which found the field for their manifestation 
amid what seemed to be seventeenth-century condi- 
tions. The darkness of the untrodden woods, the 



304 FATHER EELLS. 

starlit bivouac, the weary watchfulness for hostile 
savages, the rough log house, the Indian massacre, 
the flight, and the privations from cold and hunger, the 
courageous return — these incidents of the pioneer life 
of Dr. I^ells belong to another generation than ours. 
They seem to link him who experienced them more 
closely with the Mayflower than with the life of our 
day. If we feel inclined to ask what sort of a man 
the Puritan would be in the nineteenth century, the 
answer stands ready in Gushing Eells. 

"Small men, it is said, petrify; great men ripen 
with age. Dr. Eells ripeued. His was a hard life, a 
sacrificial life. He lost his life for Christ's sake ; but 
in so doing he found it." 

Again : " Many a church in the great northwest has 
to-day in its spire a bell that Gushing Eells presented 
to it, and many a weary, burdened home missionary 
has in some special time of need received financial aid 
from this man, who counted it ' more blessed to give 
than to receive,' and who often accompanied his gifts 
with only a sentence, frequently the words, 'Bear ye 
one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Ghrist.' " 

Resolutions adopted by the faculty of Tualitin 
Academy and Pacific University at Forest Grove, 
March 11, 1893, to wit : — 

'-^ Whereas^ In the providence of God, Rev. Gushing 
Eells, D.D., has closed a long and useful life ; and 



LAST DAYS, 305 

" TF/iereas, He has bad by his former connection 
with this school as a teacher and b\' his valuable gifts 
to the institution an important relation to Tualitin 
Academy and Pacific University ; 

^^ Resolved^ by the faculty thereof, That we feel it 
a duty and privilege to express our high esteem for 
his consistent and earnest Christian character, and 
our grateful appreciation of his generous and self- 
denying efforts in behalf of Christian education, both 
here and elsewhere, by gifts and personal labors. 

" That we believe that, so long as such fathers of 
enlightened patriotism and of practical piety shall be 
found to represent our churches and to join in their 
mission to elevate humanity, Christianity will neither 
be nor be called a failure. 

" That we confidently believe that his life of trust 
and obedience is transformed to one of higher power 
and joy and peace, and that the circle who have 
through his instrumentality been made savingly ac- 
quainted with the gospel are to him a crown of rejoicing 
in the presence of his God." 

Resolutions by the Congregational church of Walla 
Walla and Whitman College, to wit : — 

*' Wliereas^ It was the will of Almighty God, our 
heavenly Father, to take unto himself our godly 
father on his eighty-third birthday, Rev. Gushing 
Eells, D.D. ; 



306 FATHEB EELLS, 

'-'■Resolved^ That we express our high regard and 
respect for the humble aud consistent Christian, the 
pioneer and venerable missionary, whose life was a 
blessing to the world. Though recognizing that he 
came to ' his grave in a full age, like as a shock of corn 
Cometh in in his season,' and that he ' fought a good 
fight, and finished his course, and kept the faith,' and 
that he is gone to receive ' the crown of righteousness 
prepared for him,' yet we mourn our loss in his 
decease. 

"He was truly a man of God, ever enjoying com- 
munion with him, and his conversation was in heaven, 
and his purpose was to serve God and benefit his 
fellow men. He walked the earth doing good. All 
classes of men, Jews, Roman Catholics, and infidels, 
as well as Protestants, regarded him as ' the noblest 
work of God, an honest man.' 

'' Though modest and unassuming, by the thorough 
consecration of himself to the service of his Master 
he accomplished a more enduring work than many 
who have occupied more conspicuous places. By his 
exemplary Christian life he has been a constant testi- 
mony and unanswerable argument in favor of the 
efficacy and power of the religion of Jesus Christ. 
For such a life, so self-denying and devoted to the 
highest purposes, we all have reason to thank God, 
and you can justly feel proud and deem it a goodly 



LAST DAYS. 307 

heritage to be the sons and daughters of such a 
noble man. 

" You have our deepest sympathy in your bereave- 
ment. We know you do not weep as those who have 
no hope, but find real consolation in the divine prom- 
ises, knowing that, to him who lived for Christ, to die 
was gain." 

Resolutions by the Tacoma Ministerial Alliance, 
namely : — 

" Whereas, In the wise providence of God, we have 
been called to part with our revered and beloved 
father in Christ, the Rev. Dr. Cushing Eells, who died 
February 16, 1893, aged eighty-three years; 

^^ Resolved^ That in the early years of perilous work 
among the Indians he proved himself their heroic 
friend and fully equal to the great opportunity which 
God opened unto him as to few men ; that in his 
great work for education in the northwest, notably in 
founding and maintaining almost at his own expense 
and exertion that noble monument unto him whose 
name it bears. Whitman College, Father Eells ren- 
dered a permanent service to the state of AVashington, 
which will enhance as years roll on ; and that by his 
later work in founding, organizing, and aiding in the 
support of churches in our state he has supplemented 
a full life work of threescore and ten years by a last 
chapter of exceeding value to the cause of Christ, 



308 FATHEB EELLS. 

and over many of such churches liis Sabbath bells 
will continue to ring out his honored memory along 
with their calls to the worship of God. 

'■^Resolved, That we express to tlie races he served, 
the colleges he builded, the churches he aided, the 
family he honored, and tlie city he adopted, our cordial 
sympathy in their loss, and together with them we 
express our unfading tribute of personal affection and 
esteem for our translated friend — Father Eells." 

Resolutions by the Tacoma Congregational Associa- 
tion, also adopted by the General Association of 
Washington : — 

" Wliereas, In the providence of God, our most 
venerated and beloved father. Rev. Gushing Eells, 
D.D., honored of God as few men have been and 
spared to the good old age of eighty-three years, has 
been promoted to the higher field of service in the 
Master's kingdom ; 

" Therefore the Tacoma Association of Congrega- 
tional Churches and Ministers, in session at the 
Atkinson Memorial Church, hereby record their deep 
and sincere appreciation of the rare unselfishness, 
the modest, Christlike spirit, and the long and varied 
usefulness of this man of God. As pioneer mission- 
ary, as educator of youth, as friend and preacher 
to the Indians, as pastor and benefactor of many 
churches, and last but not least as founder of Whit- 



LAST DAYS, 309 

man College, Dr. Eells has made a name and left a 
work which will grow with the passage of years and 
will ever be identified with the Christian history of 
this state of Washington. 

** We have lost a father, but God has only translated 
a son who honored him and whom he, according to his 
promise, now delights to honor. 

" To his family, his city, and the churches of Wash- 
ington we hereby tender our Christian sympathy.'* 



CHAPTER XTT. 



CHARACTERISTICS . 



GUSHING EELLS was a true pioneer. Some- 
times a slur is cast on eastern men when they 
come west that they cannot do as well as western 
men. Dr. Eells came from the far east to the far 
west and succeeded fairly well. At his death he was 
the oldest pioneer in Washington. The only time he 
ever attended the annual reunion of the pioneers of 
Oregon, June 15, 1880, he was in the front rank. 

His company included the first Congregational min- 
isters to come to Oregon.^ None came before the trio 
composed of himself and Messrs. Walker and Smith. 
He was also a member of the first Presbyterian 
church west of the Rocky Mountains, having joined 



1 In 1SS5 the Congregationalists of Oregon and Washington celebrated 
their jubilee at Forest Grove, that being fifty years from the time 
Rev. S. Parker came to the coast. Mr. Parker was ordained a Congre- 
gationalist, and a letter from his son to the author Btatcd that he 
believed that he continued so. A much later letter stated that further 
investigation showed that on account of certain Christian work in 
which Mr. Parker was engaged in New York it became necessary for 
him to join the presbytery before he came to Oregon; so the celebra- 
tion was three years too soon. 

310 



CHAEAGTEBISTICS, 311 

it September 2, 1838, twenty days after it was organ- 
ized. That was the mission church, Presbyterian in 
name, but Congregational in practice as long as it 
was the mission church of the American Board. 
Afterward, when Mr. Spalding, its pastor, returned to 
his work among the Nez Perces, it was transferred to 
that place, became thoroughly Presbyterian, and cele- 
brated its jubilee August 13, 1888. Dr. Eells was 
requested to represent the American Board at that 
time, but could not well do so, and his son took his 
place. 

It has also been noted in this biography that he 
assisted in organizing the first Congregational church 
east of the Cascade Mountains, at The Dalles. With 
his wife and older son he was among the seven original 
members of the first Congregational church in the 
state of AVashington, at Walla Walla. He organ- 
ized the first Congregational church north of Snake 
River and east of the Columbia at Colfax, delivered 
the first Fourth of July address at the Walla Walla 
valley, and also in the Colville valley, and preached 
the first Protestant sermon in Walla Walla. 

In 1848-49 he taught in the Oregon Institute, now 
Willamette University, the oldest college on the 
Pacific coast, which dates its origin back to March 15, 
1842, though not legally chartered as a college until 
January, 1853. Again he taught in Tualitin Academy 



312 FATHER EELLS. 

in 1849, five months before the charter was granted 
even for the academy, which was September 26, 
1849, and this was five years before the college 
charter was granted. He also taught in Whitman 
Seminary, the first collegiate institution east of the 
Cascade Mountains, six months after its first building 
was dedicated. 

When these events, together with his almost daily 
work of pioneer travel and Christian labor, on horse* 
back, in the forest and on the prairie, by day and 
night, are taken into consideration, it is not strange 
that at the National Congregational Council in 1883 
he received the name of "John the Baptist of the 
Home Missionary Society." 

He had a remarkable memory. In the Whitman 
controversy Hon. El wood Evans took a position decid- 
edly opposed to that of Dr. Eells. The point under 
discussion was a meeting of the Oregon mission held 
in September, 1842. Mr. Evans said to Dr. Eells 
afterward : " I did not impeach your truthfulness. I 
only impeached your memory." Mr. Evans, how- 
ever, found himself mistaken, for the journal of Rev. 
E. Walker was found and showed that Dr. Eells' 
recollection was correct, although the event had 
occurred more than forty years previous. 

After Dr. Eells had resigned his last pastorate 
in 1888, having more leisure than usual he was 



CHAEA CTEBISTIG8. 313 

asked to write out some of his reminiscences. As he 
had passed through two fires and many removals, 
many of his early papers and journals had been lost. 
He had to depend considerably on his memory. Yet 
it was quite easy to remember very many of the par- 
ticulars in regard to transactions long years previous. 
Professor W. D. Lyman says; "He had some 
remarkable gifts. One was an extraordinary memory. 
I never knew one wdiose memory was both so accurate 
and so retentive. I met him in Colfax five or six 
years ago, and remarking to liim that I had not heard 
him speak for a dozen years or so, and naming the 
occasion, he said : ' And do you remember the text?' 
I acknowledged my inability to do so, when he at 
once repeated it, together with various minute circum- 
stances." ^ 

Precision. Rev. W. A. Tenney, of Oakland, Cal., 
pastor of Dr. Eells at Forest Grove in 1861, says, 
after speaking of published notices about him since 
his death : " What I have always regarded as his most 
marked trait of individuality no one seems to have 
mentioned, namely, precision. I used to notice it in 
all he did. In singing, his time, tune, pauses, and 
enunciation were as exact as possible. His conversa- 
tion, addresses, sermons, and prayers were always 
noticeably accurate, even to the pronunciation of 
* Whitman Collegian, March, 1893t 



314 FATHEB EELL8. 

every word, s}^ liable, and letter with a full and correct 
sound. His use of words and structure of sentences 
were according to rule, with perhaps more of the 
Latin element in language than is common to-day. 
His arrangement of ideas and material of discourse 
was always extremely methodical. His correspond- 
ence bore the trait — clear and exact form of letters, 
punctuation, and neatness. If I recollect, his home, 
his yard, his stable, fences, and even his attire, 
whether on Sunday or for work or for a long 
journey from The Dalles to Walla Walla — all were in 
perfect order. This element of precision existed in a 
more marked degree and to a more general extent in 
Father Eells than in any man I ever knew." 

Economy. When Dr. Eells was asked by Rev. J. 
Edwards how it was that he had been able to con- 
tribute so much he replied : " Industry ; economy 
crowned by the di^ine blessing." Brought up as he 
was on the rugged hills of New England, in his early 
life he learned habits of economy, which he practiced 
through life, and which gave to him the property he 
was able to give away. He always lived economically. 

During the last few years that he lived in the Indian 
country previous to 1848, the expenses of himself 
and family, four persons, to the Missionary Board 
were less than a hundred dollars a year. 

When he taught in Whitman Seminary, he boarded 



CHABACTEBISTICS. 315 

himself in the building, six miles from home, riding 
home usually about twice a week for food and meals, 
except when invited to meals by friends. When he 
was engaged in his home missionary work in eastern 
Washington he usually lived in much the same way, 
having his own house and cooking his own food, 
except when friends invited him to share their hospi- 
tality. Sometimes these invitations were by arrange- 
ments once a day. When he traveled he practiced the 
same economy, much preferring when he could to go 
with his own horse, and carry his food and camp out, 
than to travel by stage, steamer, or cars and put up at 
hotels. 

In 1882 he wrote : " The cost of my food is trifling. 
In the estimation of some my manner of living may 
be regarded as objectionable. But if locusts and 
wild honey were sufficient for a distinguishably great 
prophet, perhaps I may be excused if I can comfort- 
ably save money to relieve suffering sister Julia."' 
Yet his economy was solely for himself. To others he 
was always liberal. 

December 10, 1892, he wrote: "I am permitted to 
gather refuse material for firewood. It is possible 
that in the estimation of most such work is degrading. 
The word of God and the calls of benevolence encour- 
age me in so doing." 
1 See page 237. 



316 FATHEB SELLS. 

He was a man of prayer. Those who heard his 
public prayers knew that he had learned to pray in 
his closet. At one time, when he was living in the 
fanaily of his son, Indian Agent Eells, there were ver^^ 
severe trials, and all worked hard to avoid threatened 
danger. It was avoided. In speaking of it after- 
ward, his daughter-in-law said that she had had more 
faith in grandpa's prayers than in all the work of the 
other persons. His lack of ability in some other 
respects was made up by more than ordinary power in 
prayer. It was the secret of his success. 

Mrs. G. R. Andrus says that at one time Dr. Eells 
came to their house at Cheney very much troubled. 
He had been the only minister in northeastern Wash- 
ington ; he had seen the work growing and had asked 
for help. Rev. F. T. Clark had been sent, and Dr. 
Eells had anticipated great assistance from him ; but 
he did not do as was expected. The churches suf- 
fered, and he finally left the ministry. It was a bitter 
disappointment to Dr. Eells. "When he went to Dea- 
con Andrus' house, much depressed and afraid as to 
what the results would be, he said his only hope was 
that God would overrule all for the best ; that he had 
spent the whole night in prayer, earnest, wrestling 
prayer, that the churches might be delivered from 
their dilliculties. While he talked, tears were stream- 
ing from his eyes. Mrs. Andrus adds that it was a 



CHABACTEBISTICS. 317 

common thing for him to spend hours of the night in 
wrestling prayer for the work. 

His journal of June 19, 1888, says : " Without effort 
I am considerably occupied in prayer." " Taking hold 
of God in prayer" was also a common expression 
with him in later years, originating from his own 
experience. 

He was a mari of benevolence. When he was con- 
verted, his purse was converted. He preached be- 
nevolence and set the example. When he left the 
Indian mission in 1848, he determined to give one 
tenth of his income to the Lord, and he did so, how- 
ever hard the times were, and however difficult he 
found it to live. As far back as 1851 and 1852, when 
he had an income of little more than six hundred dol- 
lars a year, he gave one hundred dollars a year to 
support the gospel in his neighborhood. When he 
began to work for Whitman Seminary, he gave so 
much more than one tenth that no such limit was heard 
of after that. In 1872, when his house at Walla 
Walla was burned, he asked himself what God meant 
by it — whether it was not a rebuke to him for trying 
to lay up too many riches. He thought he might have 
erred in this respect, and so then he determined to lay 
up no more, but to give away all of his income except 
what he should need for the support of himself and 
wife ; and they lived economically. 



318 FATHER EELLS. 

Mrs. Eells shared the sphlt of her husband in 
regard to liberality. Her gift to Pacific University 
has already been mentioned. When she died, she 
gave all her private money — about two hundred and 
seventy dollars — to the American Board, tlie Ameri- 
can Home Missionary Society, and the American Mis- 
sionary Association. 

When Rev. E. W. Allen, of Dayton, Wash., was 
burned out. Dr. Eells sent him a letter of cheering 
sympathy and enclosed fifty dollars. When young he 
had heard of two kinds of sympathy. One was that 
manifested on a somewhat similar occasion, when one 
man said to another who had lost considerable, " I feel 
for you," and that was all. Another man said, '' I feel 
for you ; I feel for you so much," and gave the sufferer 
five dollars. Dr. Eells preferred the latter — to show 
his faith by his works. He felt in the same way 
for Christian education, the missionary cause, poor 
churches, and similar work. 

The following is a list of the benevolences of Dr. 
and Mrs. Eells so far as ascertainable : — 

To Whitman College $10,000.00 

„ The American Education Society 1,000.00 

„ The American Board 2,500.00 

„ Congregational Church at Forest Grove .... 1,150.00 

„ „ „ „ Walla Walla .... 860.00 

„ „ „ „ Colfax 1,600.00 

)) 1* „ „ Dayton 1,058.10 



CHABACTBBISTICS. 



B19 



To Congregational Church at Cheney 



Mrs. Eellj 



„ Sprague 

„ Spokane 

„ Medical Lake . . . . 
„ Tacoraa (Atkinson Me- 
morial) 

„ East Tacoma . . . . 

„ Olympia 

,, Seattle 

„ Lone Pine 

,, Chewelah 

„ Union City 

„ Pullman, an organ . . 



Legacies 

„ ,, Donation to Pacific University 

Miscellaneous 

Total 



$1,109.75 

756.85 
500.00 
285.20 

214.95 

211.00 
52.00 
50.00 
50.00 

174.14 
50.00 
47.50 

270.00 
* 500.00 
1,235.16 



$24,654.65 



To this should also be added his legacy to Whitman 
College, which amounts to about five thousand dollars. 

Included among these gifts was a bell to each of the 
following churches, he paying the whole cost in most 
cases, though perhaps not in every one : Colfax, Day- 
ton, Chewelah, Spokane First, Cheney, Medical Lake, 
Sprague, North Tacoma, and East Tacoma, nine in all. 
"Thus," says Rev. T. W. Walters, " bemg dead he 
yet speaketh all over the country." 

Rev. J. Edwards said, in his memorial discourse : 



*This, at the time of Dr. Eells' death, had increased so that ii 
amounted to twelve thousantl five hundred dollars. 



320 FATHEB EELLS. 

"Was he not the most generous man on the Pacific 
coast? Is there any other one who has contributed as 
liberally, according to his means, to extend Christ's 
kingdom as he?" 

The Home Missionary, in commenting on his life 
work, closes with these words : " Verily, here is an in- 
stance where ' Love does not measure its gifts, but 
rejoices to give all.' " ^ 

His was a consistent Christian life. He was not per- 
fect. No one knew this better than himself. He 
made his mistakes and had his besetting sins and 
prejudices, but still he was respected for his honest, 
sincere life. At one time, as he went to the polls on 
election day in Walla Walla, where there was much 
wirepulling to secure votes, the inspector of the elec- 
tion, a neighbor of his, but who belonged to the oppo- 
site party from Dr. Eells, said when he saw him coming 
that he would rather attempt to influence the vote of 
any other man whom he knew than that of Dr. Eells ; 
and he said it with sincerity. 

Sometimes he felt as if his life had almost been a 
failure. In 1873 he could say that neither in the min- 
istry, missionary work, nor in his efforts for Whitman 
Seminary, could he see much result from his labors. 
The last twenty years of his life gave him good results 
in all these, but previous to that time he often felt 

' The Home Missionary, March, 1893, page 559. 



CHABACTEJRISTICS. 321 

discouraged. An intimate friend, an associate teacher, 
said of him that he ought not to feel so, for if he had 
accomplished nothiug more in life than to earn his 
consistent Christian reputation, his life was a success. 

Rev. J. Edwards met an old pioneer in the Colville 
valle}^ who was very skeptical in regard to Christianity, 
but acknowledged that Father Eells was a real Chris- 
tian, and he seemed to think him to be about the only 
good man in the world. The wife of this man said : 
" Father Eells has been the savior of my family." 
This man was especially bitter against Indian agents 
and seemed to think that there was not an honest one 
anywhere. He was told that Dr. Eells had a son who 
was one, and this astonished him. Although he was 
not at all acquainted with Indian Agent Eells, yet so 
great was his confidence in the father that he said : 
'*I believe Father Eells' son can be an honest Indian 
agent." 

He loved the cause of Christian education. Many of 
his vacations, while in college and the theological 
seminary, were spent in teaching. In the mission he 
taught the Indian school his share of the time. After 
he left the mission he taught twelve and a half years, 
actual time, also serving as president of the board of 
trustees of Whitman College from the first, in 1859, 
until his death — nearly thirty-four years. He also 
served as superintendent of schools a yenr or two in 



322 FATHER EELLB. 

Walla Walla County, and in AVhitman County two 
years. 

He loved the ministry. Although he spent many 
years in teaching, it was not because he felt coldly 
toward preaching, but because for a time Provideuce 
seemed to point in that direction ; for when he left the 
Indian work he could see no other better way by which 
he could support his family. When, during the last 
eighteen years of his life, he found more time than he 
previously had done to study the Bible, as a minister 
he spoke of it as exhilarating and seemiug to lift him 
into a new life. When over seventy -five years of age, 
a friend advised him to leave eastern Washington and 
go to Piiget Sound and rest with his sons. He replied : 
"Would you deprive me of the glorious privilege of 
preaching the gospel of Christ?" When strong in- 
ducements were held out at one time to induce his son 
to enter other work than that of the ministry, he ex- 
pressed a strong desire that this should not be done. 

The following items from his journal bear on this 
point : — 

"January 19, 1877. It is a luxury to study the 
Scriptures." 

" December 23. I am thankful for the privilege of 
preaching." 

" January 20, 1878. To acquire and impart Bible 
knowledge is by myself esteemed a high privilege." 



CRABACTEBISTICS, 323 

" December 18. I am happy in the work of ser- 
monizing." 

" March 7, 1880. I believe that to preach the glori- 
ous gospel in demonstration of the Spirit and of 
power is the height of my ambition." 

'* January 15, 1882. I have been much exercised in 
prayer. I have a strong desire for length of days and 
bestowal of strength and grace so that I may perform 
large service for Christ and his church. I earnestly 
ask to be favored with the privilege of preaching the 
glorious gospel with power and success." 

" December 17, 1884. I am grateful even for a 
small congregation." 

" March 31, 1889. At Prairieside there were seven 
beside myself. Whether the smallness of the number 
is my fault I cannot say. 1 desire to be grateful for 
the privilege of preaching to a few." 

He loved missionary luork^ esjjecially that among the 
Indians. He once said at Skokomish, when there was 
talk of establishing a monthly concert of prayer for 
missions, that he did not believe a church would long 
be a living one which did not take a living interest 
in missions. After a missionary meeting at the same 
place, an attendant said that she always enjoyed those 
meetings fully as much as any others because of the 
earnestness with which Dr. Eells threw himself into 
them. Mrs. Eells said many times, between 1853 and 



324 FATHEB EELLS, 

1860, that notwithstanding the man}' removals they 
had made, and which to her were great undertakings, 
yet she was willing to make one more removal if it 
could be back among the Indians. As long as they 
both lived, their prayers were for the aborigines, 
especially those with whom they had labored in early 
life. He often visited the Spokane Indians while in 
eastern Washington, and both he and the Indians 
enjoyed the visits. He was also greatly interested in 
the work of his sons among the Indians on Puget 
Sound. He carefully revised the book of his son on 
"Indian Missions on the Pacific Coast," promising to 
give one hundred dollars if necessary (though it did 
not prove to be) to aid in its publication, and said 
to him when it was published : " If you had given me 
ten thousand dollars I could not have been better 
pleased than I was when I read that book, especially 
the fourth chapter." 

Among his gifts were twenty-five hundred dollars 
to the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign 
Missions. One of his first gifts to tliis Board was 
fifty dollars when he was dismissed from their service, 
and it was given as an offering for having been per- 
mitted to labor in that service. For about the last 
twenty-five years of his life he followed the plan as 
nearly as he could of annually constituting, by the 
payment of a hundred dollars, some one an honorary 



CHABACTERISTICS. 325 

member of the Board. Twenty-three persons, includ- 
ing all his children and grandchildren, four of the 
family of Hon. J. A. Perkins, of Colfax, and Mrs. 
Mary R. Walker, were thus made honorary members. 

As the total contributions to the Board (including his 
own) from Washington since 1857, the first year when 
any donation was made from that state, to January 1, 
1893, have been $5,571.53, and those from Oregon 
since 1850, when the first donation from that state 
was made, have been $7,494.11, it will be seen that 
his donations have been nearly as much as those of 
all other persons in Washington. But as his dona- 
tions previous to 1862 are included in the Oregon 
donations, his have been nearly one fourth of the 
total sum. 

He was a consecrated man. He was not perfect. 
His journal during the last few years of his life often 
speaks of his mourning for sin. Yet the giving of 
his money, of his time, — especially when in the home 
missionary work when he almost entirely supported 
himself, and when he worked for Whitman College, 
especially the year which he spent for it in the east 
when he gave his time and paid his own expenses, — 
show that he was perhaps as nearly thoroughly 
consecrated to Christ as any one. 

Rev. J. Edwards says; "His walk with God made 
him a thoroughly consecrated Christian. He con- 



326 FATHEB EELL8. 

Bidered it his reasonable duty to present his whole 
being a holy and acceptable sacrifice to God. He was 
reared in the atmosphere created by the Nettleton 
revivals in New England in the early part of this 
century. The preaching heard in his youth empha- 
sized man's condition by nature on account of sin, 
his absolute dependence upon Christ for salvation, the 
necessity of regeneration and entire surrender to God 
and his service. The Christian life was made a spir- 
itual life — every Christian a missionary. Those great 
doctrines took hold upon him and molded his charac- 
ter. They made him a true missionary, so that noth- 
ing could swerve him from the purpose of serving 
God and humanity. He considered all he had the 
Lord's. It w^as his close walk with God that made 
his life such a grand one. He walked the earth doing 
good, and his meat and drink was to do the will of his 
Father in heaven. In him we have a wonderful illus- 
tration of the possibilities of life under adverse cir- 
cumstances if governed by noble purposes. It shows 
that the most worthy, honorable, and magnificent life 
possible on earth is the godly one. ' Enoch walked 
with God.' That brief biography, so rich, so signifi- 
cant, and comprehensive, thoroughly fits Father Eells. 
It seems to express the very genius of Father Eells' 
life." 

Dr. Eells once said : " I have believed the Scripture 



CHABACTEB1STIC8. 327 

to such an extent that everything — soul, spirit, body, 
purse, house, land, horse, buggy — was laid on the 
altar of God." 

In 1874, on the last day before reaching Colfax on 
his way from Spokane, he rode about twenty-six miles 
and walked thirteen. When he was descending the 
canon into Colfax, still walking, these thoughts were 
in his mind : " Is it not a little strange that I am 
walking so comfortably, and what is this for?" The 
reply was : "To please my Maker and to subserve 
the best interests of my fellows." Those thoughts 
suggested a Scripture text: "The joy of the Lord is 
your strength." " I believe that is the solution of the 
great labor I have been able to perform without weari- 
ness. The joy of the Lord has been my strength." 

His was a life of trial and faiths Although much 
success finally crowned his efforts, yet he had to wait 
long. It looked very dark when he was driven from 
his Spokane Indians and had seen so little fruit. It 
looked at times, especially between 1870 and 1880, as 
if all his efforts and prayers for Whitman College, 
together with the money given, might be lost. When 
he was in the East, in 1883-84, in behalf of the 
college there were great discouragements, and the 
same was true in his home missionary work. Still 
his faith in God held on. 

In 1872, after he had been burned out at Walla 



328 FATHEB EELLS. 

Walla and visited Boise City, one thing impressed 
itself on the mind of the writer as he heard anew the 
story of his father's life at prayer-meeting and else- 
where. *' What a strong faith he has had to hold on 
in spite of so many discouragements ! " 

On these points Dr. Eells' journal has the following 
items : — 

" October 5, 1879. The result of my effort to erect 
houses of worship may well cause serious reflection. 
I have appropriated more than three thousand dollars 
to aid in building three houses of worship, not one of 
which is used largely by Congregational clergymen. 
I judge there is reason to conclude that on account of 
error of purpose or act my offering has not been 
entirely acceptable. O Lord, be pleased to guide me, 
so that my purposes shall be right, motives pure, and 
conduct without reproach." 

"June 14, 1881. I have been afflicted in view of 
the results of my life work. To-night am somewhat 
comforted." 

" February 14, 1886. During the past week I have 
prayed more than usual for the presence and power to 
attend the service to-day at Marshall. On the way 
thither I was expectant that my request would be 
granted. Together with the communicated appoint- 
ment I signified that I would be promptly there and 
would be pleased to have a fire seasonably kindled. 



CHABACTEBISTICS. 329 

'' At two o'clock the bouse was cold. Old lady 
Blaine came, returned, brought pitch pine and 
matches. While I was making whittlings a boy 
came to start a fire. Then it was time to commence 
service. Tardily a small number assembled. Re- 
turning I suffered from cold. I walked to increase 
comfort and reached home wearied." 

" February G, 1887. This morning (the Sabbath) 
I feared that I should not be able to perform my 
assigned work. The words, Micah 7:9, came to 
my mind : ' I will bear the indignation of the Lord, 
because I have sinned against him, until he plead my 
cause, and execute judgment for me : he will bring me 
forth to the light, and I shall behold his righteous- 
ness.' Thereby I was comforted and strengthened. 
I judge that 2 Cor. 12:9 was verified : ' My grace is 
suflScient for thee : for my strength is made perfect 
in weakness.' " 

'' March 8. This morning I was led to look up the 
words, ' For a small moment have I forsaken thee ; 
but with great mercies will I gather thee. In a little 
wrath I hid my face from thee for a moment ; but with 
everlasting kindness will I have mercy on thee, saith 
the Lord thy Redeemer' (Is. 54:7, 8). I like to 
believe that God the Spirit moved upon my mind. I 
am oppressed. I am afflicted. I cry day and night." 

"March 25. I judge that the buffetin^s of Satan 



330 FATHEB EELLS, 

have been applied. I turned to the Thh'ty-seventh 
Psalm. I took hold of the words : ' Trust in the 
Lord. Delight thyself also in the Lord ; and he shall 
give thee the desires of thine heart. Commit thy way 
unto the Lord ; trust also in him ; and he shall bring it 
to pass. And he shall bring forth thy righteousness 
as the light, and thy judgment as the noonday. Rest 
in the Lord, and wait patiently for him.' By those 
words applied by the Holy Spirit I am comforted." 

*' May 1. If I judge correctly there is evidence of 
marked dislike to myself and my ministration of the 
Word. I believe there is decided opposition to the 
truth. To myself the conviction is satisfactory. I 
preach the truth, therefore I displease some. AVith 
the divine favor I can bear the ill-treatment of unrea- 
sonable and wicked men. I rather enjoy their dislike. 
O Lord, vindicate thy servant in his endeavors to 
proclaim the truth. I hope and trust in thee." 

His life was an ansiver to skeptics. What made 
the boy who ran out of his father's house at the 
back door, for fear that his pastor would talk to him 
on the subject of religion, work in after years so 
earnestly for Christ? There can be but one answer; 
it was the grace of God. 

AVhat was it made the aged man of sixty-seven, 
without even a w^fe to sympathize with and cheer him, 
leave the children, who wished him to remain, and go 



CHAMACTEBISTIGS. 331 

hundreds of miles and stay eleven years? What 
induced him at the age of threescore and thirteen to 
go east to engage in the most laborious and trying 
work of his life? It was not money, for he had 
plenty on which to live ; and besides during all these 
years he in the main supported himself and paid his 
own expenses. It was renewed consecration to his 
Maker. It was a living God, Saviour, Holy Spirit, 
and Bible living in him. 

Said a skeptic lately when the writer brought up 
Paul's changed life as an instance of the reality of 
religion: "That is old; so long ago that we can 
hardly realize whether it is true or not." The lives of 
Dr. Eells and others like him prove that the gospel 
has the same living power to-day as in Paul's time. 

Yet Dr. Eells icas an ordinary man. Very ordi- 
nary, some thought; some rather looked down on 
him. He was not commanding in presence; he was 
never invited to become the pastor of the larger 
pulpits even in Oregon and Washington, and seldom 
invited to speak in them. He did not feel competent 
to become president even of his own college. He 
was never so far above other men but what they 
were brethren, never so far but what thousands of 
others could look at him as an example of what they 
might be and do. 

He proved the truth of the words, " In due season we 



332 FATHER EELLS. 

shall reap, if we faint not." Three points illustrate 
this — his work as a minister, as a missionary, and for 
Whitman College. In 1873 the prospects in regard to 
all these looked very dark to him. He had given him- 
self to the work of the ministry, but by 1874, thirty- 
six 3'ears after his ordination, he had never been 
pastor of a church ; but during the last nineteen years 
of his life he was pastor of seven churches, having 
been pastor of three of them at the same time, nearly 
all of which he had been largely instrumental in 
organizing. 

He gave ten years of his life to missionary work 
among the Spokane Indians. He was driven from the 
mission and left it with the feeling that not one of 
those Indians was suitable for church membership. 
It w^as not until 1873, twenty-five years after he left 
the mission, that he saw much fruit of the work ; and 
a few years later he said: "If one quarter or even 
one eighth of all the Spokane Indians who have been 
received into the Church are true Christians, I am 
more than repaid for all my labor." 

From 1859 to 1869 he worked to establish Whitman 
Seminary and gave three thousand dollars to it. 
During the next thirteen years nearly everything 
looked dark, and he often felt as if his money and 
labor might all be lost ; but he lived to see it grow 
into a college, with regular college commencements 



CHABACTEBISTICS. 333 

for teu years, with a faculty of eleven instructors and 
with property to the amount 'of thirty-five thousand 
dollars. 

Dr. Eells left but few published writings. They 
are mainly comprised in his missionary reports to the 
American Board, and published in The Missionary 
Herald, one or two letters to The New York Observer, 
an article in The Missionary Herald of December, 
1866, on the results of Dr. Whitman's work in saving 
the northwest coast to the United States, a centennial 
sketch of the missionary work of the American Board 
in Oregon in 1876, first published in The Pacific 
Christian Advocate and afterward in " The History 
of the Congregational Association of Oregon and 
Washington," an article or two in The Home Mission- 
tn-y on his life work, an address about Whitman 
College both in Spokane and Walla Walla papers, a 
series of eight articles — originally eight addresses — 
in The Walla Walla Watchman, and a sermon on the 
Sabbath as a day of rest, the only thing that he 
published in pamphlet form. His work was more to 
make history than to write it, to do something for 
others to write about than to write about what others 
or himself had done. 

The changes during his life were many and great. 
Reference has already been made to many of them. 
Professor W. D. Lyman speaks of others as follows : — 



334 FATHEB EELLS. 

"He was born ouly three ^^ears after the first steam- 
boat plowed the HucIsod. He was fifteen years old 
when the first railroad was laid down on American 
soil. He was nearly old enough to vote when 
the thunders of Webster's eloquence against Hayue 
marked an epoch in American history. He was about 
entering middle life when tlie first click of the electric 
telegraph announced the Democratic nomination of 
Polk for the presidency. He was beginning to be an 
old man when the desolating tempest of civil war 
burst upon the land. Of the twenty-three different 
presidents, he has lived during the administrations of 
all but three, and, had he been in the places for it, he 
could have voted for all but seven. When he was an 
infant the population of the United States was a little 
over seven million. There were no cities and but a 
few frontier settlements west of the AUeghanies. 
Even when he had become a voter the ' West ' was 
western New York and Ohio. Chicago had then no 
existence, and as for the two thirds of the present 
union west of the Mississippi, it was the ' end of the 
earth,' the home of wild beasts and wilder Indians, 
known to but a few trappers and explorers of the 
white race." ^ 

During his life the population of the United States 
increased almost tenfold, from 7,239,881 to about 

I Whitman CoUegiau, March, 1893. 



CHABACTERISTICS. 335 

65,000,000; the states from seventeen to forty-four; 
and of the 5,140 Congregational churches now exist- 
ing in the United States only 819 date their existence 
previous to 1810 (tlie year of his birth), 740 of which 
are in New England. 

The two following quotations may not be inappro- 
priate in closing. The first is an editorial from The 
Oregonlan of the autumn of 1877. In speaking of a 
call from Dr. P^ells it says : — 

" To the efforts of a few persons, among whom 
were Messrs. Eells and Walker, with Dr. Whitman 
as the prominent figure of that early time, are we 
indebted incalculably for the preservation of Oregon 
to the United States. Here and by these men, with 
others we stop not now to name, before most of the 
present generation was born was laid the foundation 
of great communities. A state well founded should 
be immortal. It is a duty to remember the men wdio 
sow seed for the centuries. History, with singular 
perversity, instead of preserving the names of those 
who build often prefers to give up its pages to the 
exploits of those who merely destroy." 

The other is from an address by Hon. R. P. Boise, 
of Salem, Oregon, before the Oregon Pioneer Associa- 
tion in 187G. After speaking of his visit to Mr. 
Eells, ^ his fellow townsman, at Forest Grove in 1850, 

I Page 30. 



336 FATHER EELL8, 

he adds^: "And history will record that these holy 
men were the nucleus around which had been formed 
and built the state of Oregon. They builded well, for 
they laid their foundation upon that rock which bears 
up and sustains the superstructure of the civilization 
of the last eighteen hundred years. And fortunate 
indeed is it that such men were here in that early 
time, men who knew the wants of a Christian com- 
munity, men who were learned in the sciences and 
literature as well as in theology and knew and appre- 
ciated the value of labor and industry, and who were 
willing to and did build with their own hands, men 
who knew how to plant in the virgin soil the seeds of 
virtue and knowledge and cultivate them, as they ger- 
minated and grew into churches, schools, and colleges. 
They founded tlie Willamette University at Salem, the 
Pacific University at Forest Grove, and other institu- 
tions of learning throughout the land, which are of 
more value to the future prosperity and glory of the 
state than all the gold of California or the wealth of 
the Indies." 

1 Transactions, Oregon Tioneer Association, 1876, pp. 26, 27. 



NDEX. 



Abbott, Dr. Lyman, remarks on 
Dr. Eells, 2ii:'. 

Aberqua, 101; Mr, Eells' home in, 
162. 

Africa, appointment of Gushing 
Eells as missionary to, "29. 

American lioanl of Foreign Mis- 
sions, idea of Dr. Whitman's 
success ill Oregon, 10!); mission 
established, 84; mission broken 
up, rJ5 ; Gushing Eells dismissed 
from, 167. 

American Eur Company, 45; 
trouble of, with Hudson's Bay 
Gompany, 58. 

American Education Society, do- 
nation to Gushing Eells, 2, ; gift 
from Dr. Eells to, 27, 196. 

American Homo Missionary Soci- 
ety, refusal to make Dr. Eells a 
home missionary, 219. 

American llendezvous, arrival at, 
54; prices at, .')6. 

Ancestry of Gushing Eells, 15, 16. 

Anderson, A. J., as president of 
Whitman College, 199; i-emarks 
on Dr. Eells, 295. 

Anderson, I'rof. L. F., remarks on 
Dr. Eells, 299. 

Anniversary, fiftieth, of Dr. Eells' 
ari'ival in Washington, 272. 

Appearance of Dr. Eells, 331. 

Astoria, 159. 

Atkinson, Dr. G. H., on Oregon 
mission, 108; chosen to solicit 
funds, 201; inability to go Ea^^t, 
204. 

Baker, Dr. D. S., donation to 

Whitman Seminary, 190; letter 

from Dr. Eells to, 234. 
Barrows, Rev. WiUiam, extract 

from " A Day with a Veteran 

Forty-five Years in Oregon," 

194. 
Beecher, Lyman, on Sunday 

travel, 39. 
Benevolence of Gushing Eells, 317, 

324. 
Big Star, 148. 



Billings, Hon. Frederick, 211. 
Boise, Hon. 11. P., remarks on Dr. 

Eells, 335. 
Brace, Julia, 37. 
Bradford, Dr. A. H., remarks on 

Dr. Eells, 302. 
Brownell, on Indian Races of 

America, 17. 

Caswell, Mrs. H. S., remarks on 
Dr. Eells, 300. 

Catholics, Spokane Indians as- 
signed to, 150. 

Gavin, Dr., 293. 

Gayuse Indian plots, 129. 

Chamberlain, Rev. P. B., pastor- 
ate in Walla Walla, 183; on site 
of Whitman Seminary, 189; 
address at dedication of Whit- 
man Seminary, 190; as principal 
of Whitman Seminary, 192. 

Characteristics of Eells family, 
17, 19, 21, 22; of Gushing Eells, 
310; of Major Samuel Eells, 17. 

Charge to Rev. F. T. Clarke, 255. 

Cheese-making, 122. 

Cheney, removal of Dr. Eells to, 
249; Dr. Eells' work in, 254. 

Cherington,Dr. F. B., remarks on 
Dr. hells, 291. 

Chewelah, Dr. Eells' w^ork for, 2.50. 

Christian consistency of Gushing 
Eells, 320. 

Chute, Dr., 43. 

Civil War, feeling of Walla Walla 
valley in, 20, 21 ; Eells family in, 
21. 

Clarke, Rev. Dorus, on Gushing 
Eells, 23 ; opening select sciiool, 
25. 

Clarke, Rev. F. T., charge to, 255; 
right hand of fellowship to, 2.57. 

Coe, David, 26. 

Colfax, church formed in, 230; 
Dr. Eells' letters to, 232 ; erection 
of church in, 242; departure of 
Dr. Eells from, 247. 

Columbia Maternal Association, 
118. 

Colville, Dr. EeUs' work for, 251. 



338 



FATHEB EELLS. 



Congrejratioiial church, first or- 
ganized euat of Cascade Mouu- 
tJiins, 178; first in Washington 
Territory, 18.J; in Washington 
west of Cascade Mountains, 222; 
erection in Cull ax of, 242; erec- 
tion in Sprague of, 261 ; resolu- 
tions on Dr. Eelis by Walla 
Walla, 305. 

Congregationiilism west of the 
Rocky Mountains, 161 ; in Wash- 
ington west of Cascade Moun- 
tains, 2-22; Dr. Eells on, 263. 

Consecration of Dr. Eells, 325. 

Controvers}', Whitman, 112. 

Conversion of Ciisliiug Eells, 23. 

Council, Indian, 134. 

Counties of Washinirton in 1S74, 
229. 

Crossing the continent by Gush- 
ing Eells, 35. 

Currency in 1838, 76. 

Dayton, Dr. Eells' work for, 250. 

Death of Dr. Whitman and fam- 
ily, 12"); of Mrs. Cushing Eells, 
239, 241; of Dr. Cushing Eells, 
289; i)oem on, 287. 

Donation to Dr. Eells from 
American Education Society, 
27; by Dr. Eells to Whitman 
Seminary and to American Edu- 
cation Society, 196. 

Eaton, Rev. J. F., elected presi- 
dent of Whitman College, 218; 
remarks on Dr. Whitman, 299; 
on Cushing Eells, 299. 

Economy of Cushing Eells, 314, 

Education of Cushing Eells, 25. 

Education Society, aid given to 
Ciisliing Eells by, 26; Cushing 
Eells' donation to, 27. 

Edwards, Rev. J., on Dr. Eells' 
work, 271 ; remarks on Dr. Eells, 
295. 

Eells, Charles, visit to Cushing 
Eells, 281 ; death, 281. 

Eells, Cushing, accident to, 282; 
account of echool work, 245; aid 
from Education Society, 26; aid 
given in erection of church at 
Forest Grove, 170; aid given to 
Walla Walla church, 183; ap- 
pointment to Alrica, 29; arrival 
at Americ;in Rinulezvous, 54; 
arrival at Dr. Whitman's, 84; 
arrival at Oregon City, 144; as 
assL-itant moderator of National 
Council, 202; as disciplinarian, 
169; as home missionary, 219; as 



school superintendent, 192; at 
Dr. Whitman's, 63; at East 
Windsor, 28; at Fort Boise, 62; 
at Fort Hall, 61; at Skokomish, 
223; at Williams College, 27; 
breaking up of the station, 142; 
buying a home, 166; called John 
the Baptist of the Home Mis- 
sionary Society, 203; camp reg- 
ulations, 46; change in mission 
field, 33; characteristics of, 310; 
charge to Rev. F.T.Clarke, 256; 
chosen president of \V hitman 
Seminary, 178; church building 
in Colfax, 242; church formed at 
Colfax, 230; college classmates, 
27; conversion, 23; crossing La 
Platte, .51; crossing the conti- 
nent, 33; crossing the Sweet- 
water, 52; currency used, 7>i; 
death of, 2S9; death of wife, 239, 
241; decisipn to become a mis- 
sionary, 29; decision to found 
memorial of Dr. Whitman, 172; 
decision to solicit Eastern funds 
for Whitman College, 201 ; de- 
gree of Doctor of Divinity 
conferred, 218; departure from 
Walla Walla, 197; desire to form 
church north of Snake River, 
229; disappointment at Dr. 
Atkinson's failure to go East, 
204; dismissal from the Ameri- 
can Board, 167; donation to 
Education Society, 27; Dorus 
Clarke, D.D., on, 23; early 
years, 22; eiUication, 25; elected 
school superintendent of Whit- 
man County, 241; experience 
with horse thieves, 1S4; extracts 
from addresses on, 291; extracts 
from journal, 264, 269, 282; 
extracts from letters to church 
in. Colfax, 232; favoring Union, 
21; favorite horse of, 224; fifti- 
eth ansiiversary of ariival in 
Washington, 272; fiftieth anni- 
versary of coming to coast, 215; 
first sight of Pacific Ocean, 220; 
food at Tshimakain, 72 ; fortieth 
anniversary of marriage, 237; 
Fourth of July address at Col- 
ville valley, 226; Fourth of July 
celebration, 177; funeral serv- 
ices of, 289; garden at Tshima- 
kain, 90; genealogv, 15; histori- 
cal sketch of "Walla Walla 
valley, 227; home at Tshimakain, 
70; home in Aberqua, 162; hor>e- 
back riding, 40; illness, 49, 51, 
281; Indian dances, 55; Indian 



INDEX. 



339 



school, 03, 94; Indian troubles, 
1-2'.), 132, Ul; in Walla Walla 
valley, 148; in Willamette val- 
ley, Kil ; items concerning work, 
310; journal concerning Colfax 
churcli,243; journal concerning 
Whitman College, 216 ; last days, 
272; last illness, 288; last of 
pioneer associates, 285; last trip 
to Skokomish, 275; last visit to 
Walla Walla, 218; last words of, 
289; learning Indian language, 
91; letter from Tacoma Minis- 
terial Alliance to, 27i3; letter to 
Dr. D. S. Baker from, 234 ; letter 
to sister-in-law from, 235; life in 
Salem, 163; locating station 
among Spokane Indians, 87 ; loss 
by fire, 102 ; of horses and mules, 
128, 196; mails, 73; making will, 
212; marriage, 31, 32; meeting 
Rev. E. Waliier, 37; meeting 
with Hudson's Baj' Company, 
58; method of traveling, 45, 47; 
missionary trip in 1874, 151 ; mis- 
sionary trip in 1875, 152 ; mission- 
ary work at Medical Lake, 248, 
250; mission's action regarding 
Dr. Whitman's proposed East- 
ern trip, 113; on denomination- 
alism, 203; on Dr. Whitman's 
work to secure Oregon to United 
States, 109; on Indians and his 
work among them, 95, 104; across 
the backbone of America, 61 ; on 
their trip, 41; ordination, 30; 
outside work while at Colfax, 
248; overtaking American Fur 
Company, 44 ; packing, 93 ; pass- 
ports, 67 ; personality, 321 ; prices 
at American Kendezvous, 5(); 
providential escape from mas- 
sacre, 125; rain, 52; raising 
money to free AVhitman Sem- 
inary from debt, 194; rations, 49, 
GO; receiving instructions as 
missionaries, 37; remarks by 
R. P. Boise on, 335; remarks by 
The Oregonian on, 335 ; removal 
of family to Walla Walla, 182; 
remova 1 to Cheney, 249 ; removal 
to Walla Walla, 175 ; resignation 
from Medical Lake, 266; resig- 
nation from Whitman Semi- 
nary, 193; resignation of Colfax 
church, 247; resolutions on, 304, 
305, 307, 308; return to Forest 
Grove, 168 ; right hand of fellow- 
ship to Rev. F. T. Clarke, 257; 
second year East for Whitman 
College, 219; staging, 38; taking 



charge of Oregon Institute, 162; 
teaching at Forest Grove, 164; 
teaching in Mr. Griffin's school, 
166; teaching in Whitman Sem- 
inary, 192; travel during 1841, 
107; trip to Tshimakain, 90; 
work for Cheney, 254; work 
for Chewelah and Colville, 
250; work for Dayton, 250; work 
for Medical Lake, 263; work for 
Pleasant Prairie, 262; work for 
Spokane, 258 ; work for Sprague, 
260; writing, 333; year spent in 
soliciting funds, 205, 212. 

Eells, Mrs. Gushing, on slavery, 
39, 40; letter to sister, 74; 
impressions of the country, 77; 
clothing, 121; death of father, 
122; teaching in Oregon Insti- 
tute, 163; at Forest Grove, 164; 
aid in building church at Forest 
Grove, 170; founding scholar- 
ship in Pacific University, 171; 
departure for Walla Walla, 180; 
Congregationalist on, 195; sev- 
entieth birthday anniversary, 
224; last visit to Forest Grove, 
227; last sickness and death, 239, 
241. See also Eells, Gushing; 
Prentiss, Narcissa. 

Eells, Eihvard, Jr., IS. 

Eells, Rev. James, professor in 
Lane Theological Seminary, 21. 

Eells, John, 15, 16, 17, 20, 21. 

Eells, Rev. Nathaniel, 16; descend- 
ants, 19; as chaplain in Revolu- 
tionary War, 20; Thanksgiving 
sermon, 20. 

Eells, Captain Robert L., In Rev- 
olutionary War, 19. 

Eells, Major Samuel, 15; charaq,- 
teristics, 17; marriage, 18; death, 
22. 

Eells, Rev. Samuel, patriotism of, 
19. 

Eells, Rev. W. W., on genealogy, 
22. 

Fairbank, Myra, 31. 
Faith of Dr. Eells, 327, 332. 
Family cliaracteristics, love of 

justice, J7; patriotism, 19, 21; 

higher education, 21; long life, 

22. 
First white woman who crossed 

continent, 35. 
Forest Grove, Dr. Eells teaching 

at, 164, 168; erection of Congre- 
gational church, 170. 
Fort Colville, determination to 

leave for, 132. 



340 



FATHEB EELLS, 



Fort Hall, Cushinp: Eells at, 61. 
Fourth of July, Walla Walla cel- 
ebration, 177. 
Funeral services of Dr. Eells, 280. 



Gray, W. H., 35, 85; crossing the 
continent, 41. 



liallock, Rev. L. H., remarks on 
Dr. Eells, ir.6, 253, 291,298. 

Hartford Seminary Record on Dr. 
Eells. 802. 

liimes, Deacon G. H., remarks on 
Dr. Eells, 298. 

Hodgton, Miss M. A., as assistant 
in \\ hitman Seminary, 192. 

IIoi eljack riding in crossing con- 
tinent, 40. 

Hudson's Bay Company ruling 
the country, 6(5; locating mis- 
sionaries, 66 ; managing Indians, 
66; desires to obtain Oregon, 
109. 

Hymn, Indian, 106. 

Indian dances, 55. 

Indians, Brownell on, 17; stealing 
horses, 44 ; during severe winter 
of 1846, 47; in Rocky Mountains, 
61; Mrs. Eells on, 79, 117; esti- 
mates of, in Oregon, 82 ; as help, 
93; Flatheads, 92, 93; Mr. Eells 
on, 95, 104; teaching music, 106; 
massacre of Dr. Whitman, 125; 
disturbances from, 129, 1 2, 1^12; 
attempts to have missionaries 
return, 144; results of mission- 
ary labor iimong, 145; asking a 
blessing, 147. 

Institute. See Oregon Institute. 

James, Rev. H. P., remarks on Dr. 
Eells, 295. 

John the Baptist of the Home Mis- 
sionary Society, Dr. Cushing 
Eells as, 203. 

Journal of Cushing Eells, 41, 44, 
45, 75, 76, 97, 178, 205,212, 216,228, 
243, 245, 2.53, 2(M, 269, 272, 274, 282, 
288; of Mrs. Eells, 36,38,40,42, 
43, 44, 47, 50, 52, 51, 55, 56, 59, 61, 
63, 119, 167. 

Kalama, 220. 

Language, Flathead and Nez Per- 

ces distinguished, 95. 
Last days of Dr. Eells, 272. 
Last words of Dr. Eells, 289. 
Le Blond, 224, 289. 



Loss of home by fire, 102, 196; of 
horses anil mules, 128. 

Love of Cushing Eells, of Chris- 
tian education, 321 ; of the min- 
istry, 322; of missionary work, 
323. 

Lyman, Miss Sarah I., on Dr. 
Eells as a disciplinarian, 169; 
remarks on Dr. P^ells, 300. 

Lyman, Prof. W. B., remarks on 
Cushing Eells, 300. 

McCrea, George F. C., remarks 
on Dr. Eells, 253. 

McHonald, Archibald, 87; con- 
cerning the future of Oregon, 
110. 

MacLaflerty, remarks on Dr. 
Eells, 291. 

Maiis in Oregon in 1838, 73. 

Marriage of Cushing Eells, 31, 32; 
fortieth anniversary of, 237. 

Massacre of Dr. Whitman, 125. 

Maternal Association . See Colum- 
bia Maternal Association. 

Medical Lake, missionary work of 
Dr. Eells at, 248, 250, 263. 

Memory of Cushing Eells, 312. 

Mills Society, 29. 

Minerals in Oregon, 109. 

Ministry, inclination of Eells 
family toward, 18, 21. 

Missionaries, early, to Oregon, 84. 

Mission established, 84; broken 
up, 125. 

Music, teaching Indians, 105. 

National Council, Dr. Eells at, 202. 
Nutting, Rev. Wallace, remarks 
on Dr. Eells, 294. 

Occidental Congregationalist, re- 
marks on Dr. Eells, 297 

Oregon, exploration of, 34,35; in 
1S38, 65; inhabitants, 65,67; gov- 
ernment, 65, 66; reputation, 69; 
houses, 70; lumber, 71; flour 
mills, 71; food, 72; mails, 73,75; 
currency, 76; missions estab- 
lished in, 84; Dr. Whitman's 
trip East to save, 108, 109; min- 
erals in, 109; breaking up of 
missions in, 144; territory or- 
ganized, 158; in 1849, 159; Insti- 
tute, 162. 

Pacific University founded, 164; 
founding scholarship in, 171; 
conferring degree ui)on Rev. 
Cushing Eells, 218; resolutions 
on Dr. Eells, 304. 



INDEX. 



841 



Parker, Eev. Samuel, 34. 

Parsons, E. D., remarks ou Dr. 
Eells,302. 

Passports, necessity of securing, 
«7,68. 

Pioneer associates of Dr. Eells, 
285. 

Platte, the, crossing, 51. 

Pleasant Prairie, Dr. Eells' work 
for, 262. 

Poem by Mrs.3Iary Walker, 142; 
Shall We Find Them at the Por- 
tal. im; Death, 287. 

I'ortlaud, 159. 

J'rayer, power of Dr. Eells in, 310. 

Preiiisiou of Dr. Eells, 313. 

Preaitiss, Sliss Narcissa, 34. See 
also Eells, Mrs. Cushing. 

Prices of food at American Ren. 
dezvous, 56; in 184i) in Willa- 
mette valley, 165. 

Puget Sound in 1872, 220 ; Congre- 
gational church on, 222. 

Punctuality of Dr. Eells, 291. 

Railroads in 1838, 69; in Puget 

Sound, 220; in Washington in 

1874, 230. 
Rankin, J. E., poem by, 286. 
Risolutions on Dr. Eells, 304, 30.5, 

307, 308. 
Revolutionary War, Eells family 

in, 19,20. 
Right hand of fellowship to Rev. 

F.T. Clarke, 257. 
Rogers, H., 85. 
Roy, Dr. J. E., remarks oji Dr. 

Eells, 300. 

Schools, Indian, 93, 99, 104, 107. 

School superintendent, Cushing 
Eells as, 244. 

Seattle in 1872. 220, 222. 

Seattle Post-Intelligencer, re- 
marks on Dr. Eells, 296. 

Settlements in Oregon in 1838,67. 
Severest winter in the memory of 

Indians, 119. 
Simpson, Governor, attempts to 

purchase Oregon, 112. 
Sims, Rev. T., remarks on Dr. 

Eeiis, 292. 
Skokomish, Dr. Eells at, 223; 

church organized, 223; Dr. Eells' 

last trip to, 275. 
Slavery, Mrs. Eells on, 40. 
Smith, Mr., 84. 
Society of Inquiry on Missions. 

5^ee Mills Society. 



Spalding, Rev. H. H., 35, 86, 224; 

work among Spokane Indians, 

150. 
Spokane in 1874, 229; Dr. Eells' 

work in, 258. 
Spokane Indians, language of, 91; 

friendliness of, 131, 132; iiev. 

H. H. Spalding's work among, 

1.50; Cushing Eells' work among, 

151; treaty with, 155; as church 

members, 1.56. 
Sprague, Dr. Eells' work for, 260. 
Strieby, Dr. M. E., remarks on Dr. 

Eells, 299. 
Strong, Dr. E. E., remarks on Dr. 

Eells, 300. 
Sunday travel, 39, 57. 
Sweetwater, crossing, 52. 
Sylvester, Miss E. W., as assistant 

in Whitman Seminary, 192. 

Tacoma in 1872, 220, 222. 

Tacoma Congregational Associa- 
tion, resolutions on Dr. Eells, 
308. 

Tacoma Ledger, remarks on Dr. 
Eells, 297. ' 

Tacoma Ministerial Alliance, let- 
ter to Dr. Eell.^ from, 276; reso- 
lutions on Dr. Eells, 307. 

Tacoma News, remarks on Dr. 
Eells, 296. 

Tanner, Dr. E. S., 20, 21. 

Telegraph in 1839, 69. 

Theological Institute at East 
Windsor, Cushing Eells at, 28. 

The Oregonian, remarks on Dr. 
Eells, 335. 

Tru-stees, original, of Whitman 
Seminary, 178. 

Tshimakain, home life of Dr. 
Eells at, 70, 72, 90; Dr. Eells' 
last trip to, 90. 

TuaUtin Academy, founding of, 
164; Cushing Eells teaching in, 
168; resolutions on Dr. Eells, 
304. 

United States, changes since 1838, 



Vigilance Committee, 185. 

Wagons and wagon roads West,- 

69. 
Walker, Cyrus Hamlin, birth of, 

89. 
Walker, Rev. Elkanah, 35, 86, 89; 

trip to Tshimakain, 90; incident 

of. 128. 
Walker, Mrs., poem by, 142. 



342 



FATHEB EELLS. 



Walla Walla, first sermon 
preached in, 173; iu 1860, 175; 
Fourth of July celebration, 177; 
organization of Whitman Semi- 
nary, 178; sympathy with the 
South, 20. 

Wars, Indian, 147. 

Washington, organization of first 
Congregational church, l&S; 
days of horse stealing and Vig- 
ilance Committee, 184; in 1872 
and 1892, 221, 229; Eastern, 
extracts from Dr. Eells' journal 
on, 258. 

Whitman College, 199; amount 
solicited by Dr. Eells for, 211; 
new buildings, 214; Commence- 
ment in 18S8, 215; discussion 
concerning religious denomina- 
tion of, 215; Rev. J. F. Eaton 
elected president, 218; resolu- 
tions on Dr. Eells, 305. 

Whitman, Dr. Marcus, 34; home 
of, 63; provisions, 71, 72; family 



in 1838, fci9; trip East to save 
Oregon, lo8; Dr. Eells on work 
of, 109; controversj-, 112; mas- 
sacre, 125; remarks of Pres- 
ident Eaton on, 229. 

Whitman Seminary, Dr. Eells' 
decision to found, 172, 173; first 
trustees' meeting, 178; Mr. Eells 
chosen president, 178; perma- 
nently located. 189; dedicatiou, 
190; raising debt, 194; donatioa 
by Dr. Eells, 196; sketch of 
seminary after Dr. Eells' de- 
parture, 197 ; change to Whitman 
College, 199. See also Whitman 
College. 

Willamette valley, work in, 34, 
158; Congregational ministers 
in, 160; prices in 1849, 165. 

Williams College, David Coe at, 
26; Gushing Eells at, 27. 

Winter of 1861, 180. 

Writings of Dr. Eells, 333. 



^- 



